Netflix interface should be simpler based on some recommendations

Netflix should eventually get a simpler interface than the current one, where you can browse almost endlessly between available titles. A new environment should only show a few titles based on personalized recommendations.

Neil Hunt, chief product officer at the video service, outlined Netflix’s plans for a new interface at a meeting in New York. According to Hunt, Netflix wants to put even more emphasis on recommendations based on previous viewing behavior in future updates of the interface. As possible suggestions, the Netflix interface should suggest no more than three or four titles, TechCrunch writes.

In Hunt’s vision of the future, traditional linear TV channels are getting harder and harder, partly because consumers want to pay to watch content without ads. Advertisers would have to adapt their existing advertising formats to still be visible.

Hunt also sees more artistic freedoms for content producers in the changing media landscape. For example, they are no longer tied to formats that last 21 to 42 minutes. Furthermore, the Netflix CEO sees the internet as the most suitable medium for the distribution of 4k content. He expects little from a 4k standard for Blu-ray, while television and production companies would have to incur considerable costs to make the current infrastructure suitable for UHD video.

It is striking that Hunt also sees a future in offering content with higher frame rates. For example, the last two Hobbit titles by Peter Jackson were shot at 48fps and there are filmmakers who want to use even higher frame rates. It is not yet known when such content will be available on Netflix.