Following on from my E-Commerce syndicate assignment on Netflix -- part of which attempted to answered the question: what should the company do next? -- the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, recently talked about his plans for Netflix's future.
While it was obvious that the company was moving towards expanding its online video offerings, what's fun (and not so obvious at first glance) is that Netflix's strategists are thinking of creative ways to do that. For example, they're thinking of expanding Netflix's online video service on to next generation game consoles (XBox 360, PS3, etc.), networked DVD players, and set-top boxes.
As explained in the Last 100 article that I got this news from, this strategy makes a lot of sense. Getting into content delivery for gaming consoles will immediately give Netflix access millions of new potential customers. The challenge, of course, will be to convince game console creators -- i.e. potential "partners" like Microsoft and Sony -- to sign up. Especially since both Microsoft and Sony have announced their intentions to create their own online video networks (dubbed "entertainment hubs"). At least Hastings is clear on the fact that all of this will take time.
Regardless, it should be fun to see how things pan out over the next few years.