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Netflix offers some content offline

by on01 December 2016


Smartphones and tablets

Netflix has finally listened to many people who travel and complained about the need for offline content. With the last update of Netflix applications, users around the world in 188 countries where Netflix is available can download some content. 

Of course, we gave it a try and it turns out that a Kevin James movie, True Memoirs of an International Assassin takes 382 MB in HD on an Android phone. It works just fine but it won’t let you download all movies. This is probably due to copyright issues,  but Netflix will tell you what will be available for your download.

Netflix has definitely transformed the way we watch video content but it was always limited by the mobile data plans for many customers. Some countries in the European Union,  including Austria, started offering plans with 20 or even 40 GB a month at full speed for reasonable money - 20 to 40 Euro - while USA customers have “unlimited” plans with T-Mobile where data ends up being capped at 28GB.  

downloading

The real answer was to offer customers offline access to some of the videos, and most owners see this move as a good thing. The stock price went up yesterday after the announcements and media coverage was definitely positive about the move.

Amazon Prime does offer this feature too, so this was Netflix' way to fight with the competition, it seems. The fact that everyone outside USA and Canada will get the new Star Trek available on Netflix definitely means a lot to fans around the world, but we will have to wait and see if CBS will let us download the show to our phones and tablets and enjoy them outside of the warm and cozy WiFi networks. Netflix does have its ghosts too, as it banned  VPN networks and doesn't let people from one country to watch the content on  another network. People who travel can see a lot of difference from the content offered in USA, UK, Germany or Austria. The fact that Netflix invests in original content and is getting a lot of 4K and even HDR content to the network, is definitely something on the positive side. 

Last modified on 01 December 2016
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