Why is Netflix so slow

Netflix took the world by storm with its bold marketing strategy right from the time of its inception in 1998. By alleviating hassles such as due dates, specific title fees, shipping payments, late penalties and all associated roadblocks to movie rentals, Netflix made huge leaps in the market in terms of the number of subscribers. Netflix offers a host of features and services to its users, ranging from DVD and Blue-Ray CD rentals to online streaming of high definition content. Though the venture continues to be a market leader, but there a few chinks in the armour that need some looking after.

There is a limit to which Netflix can acquire newly released movies and episodes. Fresh content acquires the greatest demand and as a consequence there is no dearth of eager subscribers who send in their request for a single DVD. The result is the demand exceeds the supply and Netflix is not able to satiate all its subscribers. Some of them have to wait for quite a considerable amount of time before getting what they want. This certainly is not helping the company’s reputation at all, and the worst part is that the problem does not seem to be getting solved anytime soon.

Even Netflix’s online movie service is feeling the heat of excessive usage. The instant watch feature began well, but the follow up has been short of anything worth lauding. There are too many dissatisfied customers complaining of excruciatingly slow buffering and download speeds from Netflix. The speculation is that the Content Distribution Network employed by Netflix for rendering its online services is grossly insufficient, and this is further aggravated by the fact that not all the subscribers have reliable fast internet connections.

The mismatch between the serving and receiving stations also inhibit the smooth data exchange that is required. The suggested speed for DSL connections that wish to use Netflix in full swing is 5Mbps, but surveys confirm that most subscribers are stuck at 3 Mbps. This has a deleterious effect on the data connections they share with Netflix.