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With only less than 10% of subscribers ordering Blu-ray Discs, Netflix is saying that Blu-ray won't have a big effect on their sales, believing that it will continue shipping DVDs for the next 10 years.

Wow. That's pretty bleak if you're a Blu-ray backer. An article in Video Business quotes Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy from a Bank of America investor conference. With consumer adoption so slow, and the lack of a sub-$300 player, he doesn't anticipate a big impact.

What else did he have to say?

Without a single standard for digital distribution, streaming services will not beat out DVD for at least another 5 years.  McCarthy also thinks their unlimited viewing model will outsell a la carte services such as Amazon's video-on-demand, even though they have almost three-times as many titles as Netflix.

He also had interesting comments on the shipping shutdown they experienced last month. Luckily for Netflix, the meltdown happened during the Olympics, and during that slower rental period, it didn't cause widespread problems that could have been much worse.

If the industry isn't 100% enthusiastic about Blu-ray, will the format ever gain the popularity it deserves? -Leslie Shapiro

Video Business