Netflix Could Debut Offline Viewing

The most annoying thing in the world is when you’re about to board an airplane and you realize that you won’t be able to binge The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Or indeed anything on Netflix, for that matter. The streaming giant is on a huge hot streak of original programming and is still the best and smartest streaming option, but you can’t watch it offline. That’s an area in which it lags behind competitors like Amazon, which is now offering both offline viewing options and a streaming-only subscription service that costs a dollar less than Netflix’s. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings could see that changing in the future, according to comments he made during a Monday earnings call. "We should keep an open mind on all this… as we expand around the world where we see an uneven set of networks, it’s something we should keep an open mind about," he said, according to Tech Insider. While that’s not a hard no, it’s also not an enthusiastic yes. The rights to stream content offline are tricky and probably needs a separate negotiation with the content owners. Still, it’s exciting that our transit could be blessed by Netflix without the need to have wifi.