Everyone loves Netflix, cost hike or not, at least until their connection craps out. But soon you might be able to watch Netflix without needing a Wi-Fi signal, and that might be happening sooner than you think.
Amazon Instant and Comcast already offer “offline video,” which allows you to temporarily download movies and TV shows to watch when you go into distant hellholes with poor Internet service, like the homes of parents. Netflix has been slow to come aboard, mostly because they seem to want to offer anything you can stream as offline viewing, and not all of their content partners would be on board.
But they may finally have decided to make the leap. According to Light Reading, Netflix is developing the tech and might roll it out as soon as the end of the year. It does remain largely a technology people use to cover their bases when they get on a plane or otherwise need to have something to watch that isn’t a show about acronyms solving crimes, but that alone makes it useful.
As for what you can download and watch, it will likely be Netflix’s original content as a test run, but it may spread quickly, especially if it becomes popular. And if Netflix drops it right before the holiday travel season, they can expect it to see quite a bit of use. Especially if we keep getting trapped in airports.
(Via Light Reading)