Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) is an online movie rental company that operates with a two delivery methods: DVD shipments and online streaming. The shift to online streaming is growing in popularity and is evident as DVD shipped per subscriber is declining. More than one third of new subscribers are now going for streaming-only service, and Netflix is aggressively beefing up available content to attract new users. Netflix's growth will come from increasing its subscription base, and we believe that Netflix will look to international markets as a core element to its growth plans (beyond Canada). Although Netflix's business model is unique, it still competes with Apple's iTunes, Hulu, VoD services from pay-TV providers like Comcast, Time Warner Cable and others.

I admit it. I'm a Mark Cuban addict. It's okay though, I can give it up at any time, I swear. For now though, I won't stop reading Mark Cuban. He's just so real, so genuine. He's the kind of guy I'd like to have living across the street from me just so I could go over and offer him a beer once in a while (if I still drank beer that is). In any case, at least once a week I need a fix of Cubanism, so I trek over to The Blog Maverick to see what Mr. Cuban is writing about.

Mark Cuban has put an interesting spin on this broadband video subject. It's an angle that I never really thought about. He suggests that we may be looking at this content delivery stream from a reverse perspective. His assertion is that while we are all wondering how to get our favorite internet content from our PCs into our TVs, we're missing the fact that the delivery apparatus is already there! Mark Cuban puts forward the proposition that internet content such as YouTube (NASDAQ:GOOG) could be presented to our televisions from the provider end rather than the user end of the proposition!!! Egads! Why didn't I think of that? (I guess that's why he's Mark Cuban and I'm not ).

The proposition is so simple that it makes me wonder why we haven't caught on that it's being done already. Every pay-per-view service that was ever subscribed to via cable or satellite is exactly the thing we're asking to have given to us, video on demand. When you add in the fundamentals of the current video gaming formats via Play Station, XBox and similar, then the circle is completed and you have "interactive video of choice on demand.".The trick is to get our televised entertainment providers to tap into the internet servers and start providing us that content. We would simply subscribe to our data streams of choice and they would "download" to our televisions via our DVRs. Total availability, total control and total recording ability would then be ours.

It sounds quite simple the way Mark Cuban describes it, but I must admit that almost everything does.

I wrote a rather starchy little article about Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) on January 2, 2007. In that article I stated that it seemed obvious to me that Netflix has a limited future. I did however leave the subject a tiny bit open ended by suggesting that Netflix should merge in with the growing demand for streaming broadband video. An excellent article by Rick Aristotle Munarriz over at The Motley Fool gives me reason to believe that it's quite possible Netflix is preparing for just such a merger to secure its future.

While Mr. Munarriz's article takes Netflix to task for its choice to remove graphical ads from its subscriber site, I myself find the choice to be wise, timely and oh so smooth. Yes, it means Netflix will bypass a proven revenue source but we really need to look at the bigger picture here. First off, if you were to poll consumers who regularly use the Internet for any variety of purchases or tools, you would get the overwhelming reaction that when given a choice they'd really rather not deal with superfluous advertising on their favorite sites. Add to that the fact that Netflix aborted the ad proposition before it had become a measurable portion of its already stout financial statements. It ran the test, it got its results, it decided it wasn't a program it wanted to use... brilliant work Netflix.

By now my readers and fellow bloggers have figured out that I like to navigate around the web looking in the jungles and swamps of the technology fringe culture.There's a rumor swirling about which puts forward a very interesting proposition.

As you may know, the one big deterrent to the rapid expansion of streaming broadband as the next juggernaut of in-home entertainment is simply the incredible size of the data load required to successfully accomplish the task. There's a new school of thought that believes that the data load can be successfully reduced by placing some of the bull work at the receiving end.

It is thought that broadband receiving units can be built and programmed to virtually "create" a percentage of the data needed to light up those pixels on your flat screen. In other words, content providers would stream as little as 60% of the original image and sound data, then the receiving unit in your home would extrapolate the balance of the data needed to fulfill the program.

For instance, if you were watching a movie scene that was taking place in an area that was very dark, the areas that are black (or nearly so) would be recreated in your receiver. That data wouldn't need to be sent to you. Another angle is to stream the content in a "two track" format. Audio and video would stream separately with the sound track arriving first. Then, the video portion would stream as a second "operation" and the two tracks would marry and synchronize in your home unit without you ever knowing the difference.

Is Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) working on something like this? Is Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) going to make this happen? Is Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) readying this technology? Who knows? For now it's just a very unsubstantiated rumor, but it's within the realm of possibility. I'll be here to let you know if I hear that anything like this takes form. Until then, it's back into the fringe technology swamp I go!