Netflix CEO: “We’re now finally beating BitTorrent”

Great news if you’re a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the war on illegal downloading of movies is finally in your favor. At the recent D9 Conference this morning, Netflix is helping to beat piracy, according to its CEO, Reed Hastings. Corroborating with previous reports about Netflix reducing bit-torrent downloads in the US, Hastings was quoted as saying, “One of the things that we’re most proud of is we’re now finally beating BitTorrent.”

According to Hastings, the most internet video is now paid for in the US, of course this is mostly due to services like Netflix offering services that people want at affordable rates. He also mentioned that Neflix has enabled content owners to make money off of shows that previously weren’t monetized i.e. Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Due to it being unavailable through any other legal mean prior to its debut on Netflix, Fox is now finally getting paid for it.

It looks like Netflix is doing a great service to the MPAA and content providers with its current business model. Now it’s all about competing against other similar services in the industry, and hopefully expanding internationally where piracy is more rampant, especially in Asian countries.

George Wong
Categories: Web
Tags: Movies, Netflix, Piracy, streaming, video on demand