Pachter: Netflix on Wii won't matter as much as on other consoles

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jan 13th 2010 6:40PM

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter doesn't think the announcement of Netflix streaming on Wii is that big of a deal in growing the rental service's customer base. Pachter's perspective is that "fewer than 20 percent" of the US's 26 million Wii owners are connected to the internet, which is a necessary component to stream movies through the service. In comparison, he believes over 75 percent of Xbox 360 and PS3 users are caught up in the internets.

IndustryGamers reports that Pachter expects "some traction" from the Wii announcement, but that it won't "jump start Netflix activations." He believes the Nintendo console's installed base will "embrace the Netflix service only gradually." With so many consumer electronics receiving the Netflix streaming service, Pachter does believe it'll "allow Netflix to maintain its prior pace of subscriber additions as new customer additions from the Xbox 360 installed base begin to slow."

Source

Tags: michael-pachter, netflix, Nintendo, pachter, Wii

Reader Comments (94)

I think Pachter is correct on this one. It'll be a word of mouth thing.

Pachter is correct in evereything!!!

Makes sense, there is no HD support like 360 and PS3, and way less 'hardcore' users that might use this sorta thing. I don't think little kids and stuff care about netflix so much.

Uh, why not? Movies and TV shows have a far broader appeal than video games. I don't see how being a "hardcore gamer" would impact one's enjoyment of films... If anything, I'd see it as being a converse effect: the less someone enjoys video games, the more they enjoy TV/movies.

@BPMOmega - argument only works if there are TV shows and movies worth streaming on Netflix

Are you implying there aren't?

I'm not disagreeing with you necessarily (I don't subscribe to Netflix, so I don't know all of what's on the service), I just honestly don't know.

there is actually a good amount of shows worth watching on netflix (the office, lost, desperate housewives) and mostly c list movies and then some better movies worth watching from starz play.

I'm in one of those Wii-only families (I bought it as a graduation present to myself!), and I'm looking forward to Netflix streaming. In fact, I've already ordered my disk for the service.

As for the HD debate, I don't have an HDTV. I still have one of those great big 36" CRT-type televisions. We don't have TV reception where I live, and it still connects to the VCR/DVD player so I'm sure not in a hurry to upgrade. Yeah, I don't even have a Blu-Ray player. Sometimes I do feel like a dinosaur... but yeah, since HD isn't an option for me (yet), it isn't a factor in deciding what equipment to get.

But it will be nice to be able to watch Netflix streams on the TV, rather than on the laptop. It's good to have options.

Crap, I responded to the wrong comment. Sorry about that!

It's great if you're a.. *gasp* Wii-only owner.

But if you have ANY other method of streaming Netflix, that's what you're gonna use.

"It's great if you're a.. *gasp* Wii-only owner"

Chances are if you're a wii only owner, you're not interested in this.

Chances are also very high you probably don't even know about this then, as you don't even know that your Wii can even connect to the internet, let alone use Netflix.

You know what else? the wii doesn't even have HD in the first place, so I don't see the point in Netflix streaming on wii.

Yes, but, there are a lot of families that ARE Wii only family members. So, for that reason, I could see this, not being a giant game-changing hit, but, at least giving a few more people options for family movie night.

...the average family that only owns a Wii probably could care less about this.

I am a *gasp* Wii-only owner and am looking forward to streaming from Netflix. I have a BD-Live enabled BD player by Samsung that is just barely old enough not to stream Netflix. I also have WD TV Live media player that I stream content from YouTube and other things from. I just don't have anything else to stream Netflix and am not a big enough gamer to own anything other than a Wii. I have a large rack of AV equipment, but nothing to fill this void, so this is welcome to me.

I fully understand though that I am not typical of this situation.

...but why would you want SD streaming?

What's so sinful about SD streaming? HD is nice, but its not life-changing

But it is! Once you go HD, you never go back!

He's right. Once you go to HD it's nearly impossible to go back to ancient machinery. I used to disagree too...until I went HD.

SD streaming nowadays is like walking around with a CD player in your jacket pocket instead of an ipod/other mp3 player.

@Bradwart,

Almost all of the netflix "watch it now" catalog is SD though. If you insist on sticking to the HD content, you only get around 200 movies/tv shows to choose from...

I don't care if stuff is HD or not. SD is more than good enough for almost everything available.

No, it's really not.

You damn nasty HD whore.

Yeah, I'd say 80% of everything streamed on Netflix isn't above 480p. Occasionally I'll see a really good looking stream but more often than not, it's not better than a regular DVD.

The bigger issue I'd say is not this B.S about the Wii not going above 480P, as if internet streaming is the Pinnacle of HD... but rather the fact that the Wii's WiFi signal is significantly more crappy than other consoles. Compared to my PS3 the connection is really bad. It gets me by on most things but I think Netflix streaming would test it the most. Which could cause viewing to be worse simply due to the connection Netflix detects not so much the Wii not outputting greater than 480p.

Perhaps I'm in the minority though.

"He's right. Once you go to HD it's nearly impossible to go back to ancient machinery. I used to disagree too...until I went HD."

Alright, so I'm at a friends house a month or two after the original L4D came out. We were playing on No Mercy, the first hospital level (from the first floor to the roof) and in the first wide open area I really noticed that something was wrong. Something didn't look right. All the words were a bit choppier/more jagged, and everything just looked rather ugly.

I left the match after that round, went to his system settings, and what I saw gave me a fright! Despite having it connected to a small 720p tv via the RGB HD cables, he had his Xbox 360 set to output in 480p! Oh the horror! Well I quickly changed it to the correct HD setting, and when I went back into the game it actually looked so much better. Really really noticeably better!

Finally my friend came back from the restroom and his first reaction was, "Eww! What did you do to it? It looks all small and ugly!"

Moral of the story? Bradwart/Tmac are right. Spend enough time around HD games and suddenly SD just isn't the same anymore.

And yes, that was a cool story, thanks for (possibly) pointing that out.

A LARGE chuck of the streaming movies from netflix are SD anyways, and it's not like the 720p streams are anywhere close to blu-ray quality. (they're closer to DVD)

Even so, Wii-only owners didn't care enough about HD gaming to get an HD console, why do you think they'd feel any different about streaming?

I go HD and SD. I switch between the two.
I even hook up my Satellite box into two different TVs (which are both in the same room). Sometimes I watch HD and regular channels on my HD, sometimes I just watch SD on my SD.
Sometimes I watch Bluray, sometimes I watch regular TV...

It honestly isn't life-changing. Those who say it is are..... either overreacting or needs to go outside more often and see how good graphics are out in the real world.
... HD looks more fake than SD at times.

I mean, do you REALLY need to watch The Hangover on BluRay?

And if you wonder why there's two TVs in one room in my house: It's so I can watch TV and play video games at the same time.... so I won't miss my favorite shows.
...... I should just get a DVR...

And some people (like me) only have enough bandwidth to stream in SD. :(

I think Netflix on the Wii is great, personally. The Wii is hooked up to a different TV from the Xbox and the PS3 in my home, so that room would get Netflix that it otherwise didn't have.

Agreed.

This will definitely appeal to the now-I-have-another-room-to-watch-streaming-movies crowd, myself included. I've already got a 360 in my room, where I watch streaming movies, but I wouldn't want to disconnect it from my setup and lug it downstairs to the living room should I want to watch a movie with the fam or guests. Nor do I have to make another investment on a Netflix-ready multimedia player. I feel like I've already saved some money.

And in these times, saving some money isn't such a bad thing.

Given a choice between using Netflix on my 360 or Wii (and now I have one (a choice)) I will continue to use Netflix on my 360 for the simple reason being that if I'm sitting on my couch and decide that I want to watch a streaming movie from netflix, I can just turn on my console with my 360 controller which I keep within grabbing range of the couch as opposed to the Wii which would require that I stand up and walk ALL THE WAY over to the Wii just to turn it on.

GOD I love being lazy

You seriously can't turn on the Wii remotely?

Fail.

You do realize the Wii remote can turn the system on, too, right?

Yes the Wii remote can turn the system on. I don't know what Trickob is talking about...

"I can just turn on my console with my 360 controller which I keep within grabbing range of the couch as opposed to the Wii which would require that I stand up and walk ALL THE WAY over to the Wii just to turn it on."

I don't think you have a Wii, let alone touched one.

are you fucking serious?? I need to mess with my Wii some more!!

(I just got it for Christmas)

HOLY SHIT ITS TRUE!! Allow me to explain the situation: I got a black wiimote with my Wii and I never use the white one that came with it (my wife always uses it) and the power button is somewhat difficult to see since the markings on the jacket are all black and the jacket itself covers up the button so I had no idea there was a power button on the wiimote.

I feel pretty stupid but if I hadn't made that ignorant comment, no one would have corrected me and I never would have known. Thank you scathing Joystiq biomass!!

Now I can watch Netflix on either console!! (I'll still probably watch it on the 360... ;p)

Here's another tip. Hit a button when it's off, It will tell you the current battery level by the flashing lights.

No its cool. You just never know when someone's made an innocent mistake or is just trolling

You can turn on the wii with the remote. But in order to turn off a remote you are not using you have to pull the battery out. Then when you put the battery back in your have to place it down very carfully and make sure it doesnt move AT ALL.
Otherwise the remote will turn back on....
Its like Nintendo is trying to make us waste money on batteries / kill the environment

I thought you could turn off the Wiimote by pressing the home button, then pressing reconnnect and waiting a little.

Brodo. When you need to do that, go to the Home menu, click on Wiimote settings, then go to "Reconnect." It'll disconnect all active remotes, then prompt you to press 1+2 in the desired player order.

That one did take me a while to figure out.

I always thought it was strange for them to cover the power button on the wiimote with the jacket.

Brodo, I have no idea what the hell you are talking about because the remote turns itself off after awhile.

I have turned my system on, grabbed my GameCube controller, and after playing a little while with that, I have to turn the remote back on to use it. And I am not talking about playing a GameCube game.

Oh alright, thanks guy.
Except for you Drakkenfyre, your just a big meanie :(

But seriously, it seems weird you cannot just push the power button (without holding it down for long) to power off the remote

Must... Not... Agree with Pachter....

I find it funny that THIS is the only non-game DVD that will work in your Wii. It's like a mix of dated and new.

Good point, lol forgot about that.

If you want to get technical about it, I think the Firmware update discs that shipped with some launch Wii's were DVD's, as well.

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Pachter: Netflix on Wii won't matter as much as on other consoles

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