In a conference call earlier this week, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings addressed some of the future plans for his increasingly world dominating media company.  

First off, regarless of the fact that Netflix does not charge an additional fee for them now, Hastings announced that the company will soon charge a premium for the use of BluRay discs.  He tries to justify this by claiming that “consumers are used to paying more for high-definition.”  Really, Reed?  Because your own customers definitely aren’t at this point.  Interestingly, competitor Blockbuster has not at this point announced any plans of similarly jacking up HD prices.  Hopefully, this was Reed’s way of putting a metaphorical toe in the water and Netflix will back off of these plans.

Next, the often rumored set top box is reportedly on the way by the end of the year.  The box would allow customers to use the widely popular “Watch Now” feature on their living room TV’s as opposed to thier cramped computer monitors.  Netflix is claiming multiple sponsors and partners for the widening feature, some of which are rumored to be Apple and Microsoft with their respective Apple TV and XBox 360.  No word on this point if Netflix would be also racking up additional fees for these services, so we can breathe a sigh of relief for now.

Here’s a question for all of you.  Are you being swayed into the realm of digital distribution via Netflix or iTunes, or do your Luddite tendencies keep you to owning physical copies of multimedia?  Let us know in this thread in our Sci / Tech forum.

(Thanks to SlashFilm for the scoop.)

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