According to sources in the tech industry, Netflix is working towards introducing offline viewing by the end of this year.
The new development will be essentially the same as the ‘listen offline’ feature on Spotify, allowing users to download content onto their laptop, phone or tablet and watch on the go.
Dan Taitz, COO of Penthera, told trade publication LightReading:
My expectation is that, by the end of the year, Netflix will be launching download-to-go as an option for their customers.
To be fair, Netflix has actually been pretty slow getting on board with this.
Amazon Prime launched offline video at the end of last year, while BBC iPlayer has been trailblazing the feature since 2012.
In fact, Netflix has been dead against it – last year COO Neil Hunt said Netflix wasn’t interested in offline video he wasn’t sure people are compelled to look through all the Netflix choices and download what they want.
It sounds like they’ve seen sense now, although, according to Gizmodo, the offline choice will be limited by which studios want to offer it – so it’s probable not all content will be ‘download and go’.
That work commute is about to get a whole lot more bearable.
