Streaming Services' New Investment: Offline Viewing

by Alex Weprin , July 11, 2018

The new battle in the streaming video wars isn’t streaming at all.

Two of the market leaders in streaming video, Hulu and Netflix, are stepping up their investments in offline viewing, giving their subscribers access to their favorite shows even when they don’t have an internet connection available.

The latest news on that front? Smart Downloads from Netflix. Starting with Android-powered mobile devices this week, and expanding to Apple’s iOS later this year, Smart Downloads will automatically download the next episode of whatever show you are watching, so if you finish your current episode and then hop on the subway, you will still be able to watch on the ride home.

Once you are back on WiFi, Netflix will delete the previously downloaded episode and move on to the next one.

Currently, Netflix allows all of its original series to be downloaded for offline viewing, as well as some acquired programming. However, until now, the download process was a manual one, and could be confusing to some users.

Meanwhile, Hulu is approaching offline downloads a little bit differently. Hulu, which offers multiple tiers of service, including an entry-level offering supported by ads, is creating a new product that can incorporate advertising into offline downloads.

At its May upfront, Hulu announced its intention to create the product in time for the 2018-2019 season, adding that it was “a viewing experience never before available to advertisers.”

Hulu’s offline ad product is set to include targeted pre-, mid- and post-roll ads, and even the company’s ad selector, which lets users choose to watch an extended ad before the show in exchange for a commercial-break-free experience.

For both Netflix and Hulu, there is real investment in offline options -- consumer-friendly features that could give these services a leg up as the streaming video landscape becomes more crowded.

live streaming, mobile, ott, streaming, video

7 comments about "Streaming Services' New Investment: Offline Viewing".

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Sean Wyseman from several, July 11, 2018 at 3:59 p.m.
Too bad netflix is such a garbage dump of refuse. Most anyone that has any brains has already unsubbed netflix forever. They have become a totally partisan company -- actually always were but now they're being obvious about it. Never again.

Sad that what could have been a good company turns out tto be just another extension of MS13. You know that the MSM = Mainstream Media right? Ok have you noticed what the 13th letter in the alphabet is? If you didn't guess it just count ... that's right it's no accident it is leftist code, symbolism, of their operation. MSM has the same meaning as meainstream media. MS13 is just the enforcement division of the MSM or mainstream media. Netlfix is included because they are globalist controlled.

They are part of the propaganda machine that kills enemies and spews sick hateful movies, violence and sexual depravity unlimited, and basically out there to destroy the peace and love within famlies with debt, crime, drugs, violence, and more crime and hatred.

Once I saw how many prison shows they've created -- I never watch them -- I realized they are preparing America for a massive prison culture because that's the globalist plan. Not a conspiracy theory. It's all docuemente and published by the very perpetrators.

That is why they have the "all mocking tongue" because they publish their criminal intentions openly then use the MSM to label it as a conspiracy and then they mock you for being so stupid as not to take them serously but they also mock you openly in the MSM and will smear to you to hell for believing what they've printed and for taking them seriously.

They want to destroy our society so that they can take over. It's time we started ignoring all the machinery that they use to deceive us and shut them down forever.
Reply

M H from This One replied, July 12, 2018 at 10:06 a.m.

Please, tell us more

Neil Ascher from The Midas Exchange replied, July 12, 2018 at 10:23 a.m.

You can't possibly be serious

John Grono from GAP Research replied, July 12, 2018 at 10:48 a.m.

My head hurts .. from shaking it in disbelief.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, July 12, 2018 at 12:50 p.m.

John and Neil, surely you believe that the U.S. pays 90% of NATO's military costs--don't you?

John Grono from GAP Research replied, July 12, 2018 at 5:58 p.m.

Ed, I know that some media are known for hyperbole and that 'rounding up' is the norm in PR, but we certainly have a 'winner, winner, chicken dinner' here with this one.

But if Trump tries hard enough I'm pretty sure he can do better and get the share up to the 110%-120% range. That would really rally the masses behind him. Go Donald, go!

Dave Zinman from Drawbridge replied, July 12, 2018 at 10:07 p.m.

Wow. I didn’t realize they had whackadoodles reading MediaPost. You would think someone bothering to read an industry trade publication would know that Netflix is producing prison shows because people want to watch them, not to prepare the population for some dystopian prison-based future. Maybe it’s legal cannabis in CA affecting the brain?