One of the most convenient features of many popular music and video streaming services is the ability to download music, movies and TV shows for offline viewing. Subscribers have waited years for similar functionality to come to Netflix, but it might be time to finally give up on that dream once and for all.
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In a recent interview with TechRadar, Cliff Edwards, director of corporate communications and technology at Netflix, said the following:
“It’s never going to happen.”
Edwards believes that offline playback is a “short term fix for a bigger problem.” That problem involves access to WiFi and the quality of the stream. Once WiFi is more readily accessible from a larger variety of locations around the world, offline playback would no longer be necessary.
Sadly, the future WiFi-filled world that Netflix has dreamed up does not currently exist, so for now we’ll have to settle for taking WiFi when we can get it or deal with the overage charges once we hit our data caps.
