Netflix may finally be close to adding the feature that all its users desire: offline mode.
According to an industry source interviewed by Light Reading, the streaming platform giant could launch the feature for desktop and mobile before 2016 comes to a close. The publication spoke with Dan Taitz, chief operating officer of Penthera, a company that sells mobile-focused software to streaming video providers.
“We know from our sources within the industry that Netflix is going to launch this product,” Taitz told the publication.
“My expectation is that by the end of the year Netflix will be launching download-to-go as an option for their customers.”
Taitz specified to Fortune that those sources include content providers, cable operators and other streaming service providers.
Additionally, Dan Rayburn, principal analyst at consulting and market research firm Frost & Sullivan told Light Reading that it’s something of an open secret in the streaming video community that Netflix is working on an offline feature.
“We’ve been hearing for months now that they are in fact going to roll out something soon,” said Raybury.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has in the past stated that temporary downloads was “never going to happen,” but is more recently quoted by Business Insider as saying: “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.”
[source]Light Reading[/source][via]Fortune[/via]
