The gist of the article, where it applies to on-line piracy is I think both sound & supported by evidence [stats] & research, but quoting the Netflix CEO on the topic is kinda like asking Bill Gates about the future of Linux. :) And when talking about the downsides of on-line streaming, the single warning: "... beware the limited-data plan", might be a bit of an understatement.
In the US at least, if you've got cable or satellite TV, then you can already have the service at home that Netflix & Amazon & Hulu etc. hope to provide some day via on-line streaming. On-line video streaming services like Netflix originated as a way to compete with cable TV when the cable companies own the infrastructure, the actual cable coming into homes. It was a way to compete with Satellite TV without paying for satellites. Of course the Netflix CEO isn't going to tell you that -- it makes for bad PR. Nor does Netflix talk about how they lost money competing with Blockbuster in the DVD rental by mail biz -- rates got low enough in that price war that even Walmart gave up on competing [they tried & at those prices, even with their vast resources, they couldn't see a future profit in it]. Recently Netflix lost loads of customers as their CEO split their streaming & DVD by mail rental businesses -- DVDs are something Netflix would apparently like to leave behind. Considering the way that their stock took a hit as a result, while the press had a field day questioning the Netflix CEO's intelligence, the CEO claiming DVDs & Blockbuster are both dead or dying should really be expected. :)
Suggesting Blockbuster, or any of the DVD/Blu-Ray rental outlets are very rapidly fading into history is a stretch, & DVD discs themselves Are Not going to disappear tomorrow or next week. Fact is DVDs are still selling. DVD sales may not be at any all-time peak, but TV viewing hours are down in general [there are more alternative ways you can spend your leisure, e.g. going on-line], the quality of the movies Hollywood releases has been declining, and both cable & satellite have been offering more of the same movies sooner [often within weeks of the DVD release]. That said, Blu-Ray has been declining, most likely from a combination of very heavy, intrusive DRM, and being more susceptible to physical damage.
We have a subscription with Blockbuster, generally getting 1-2 Blu-Ray discs a week, & the number of unplayable discs, while still low, is several times worse than anything we experienced with DVDs. All discs get scratches, but Blu-Ray seems to get more, & it takes Much less of a scratch to render a Blu-Ray disc useless -- we've played DVDs that looked like they'd been attacked with sandpaper, while the Blu-Ray we exchanged yesterday had a scratch so small it was really barely visible in very good light, yet that was all it took to make the movie stall, refuse to play any further... it's not a pleasant experience to get part way through a movie & have it stop. As far as the DRM goes, cross your fingers every time your player needs to update itself to handle some newer DRM. Blu-Ray has higher resolution than streaming, plus subtitles -- otherwise I wouldn't bother with it.
