It’s a good question, folks, and one that bears some examination.

See, we all know that DVDs aren’t going away any time soon.  Nor are Blu-ray discs.  Physical media is still going to be tops for late adopters and those without high speed internet access.  Even Netflix expects to be sending DVDs by mail for the next twenty years, although that may be a bit pie in the sky.

But as the streaming war, quite possibly the final format war, begins, Netflix will lose a lot of advantages and gain a host of problems.

One, Netflix is doing as well as it is because of its massive distribution network.  Trying to set one of these up is a logistical nightmare that requires vast piles of loot that most people, especially these days, simply can’t get their hands on. When streaming fires up in earnest, anyone with a file server and decent bandwidth can run an operation similar to Netflix out of a space the size of a back bedroom.

Two, as big a name as Netflix is, it can’t compete recognition-wise with Amazon, Walmart, and YouTube.  Sure, we think Netflix when we think movies, but when we think online video, Netflix doesn’t come up right away.  YouTube, on the other hand, sure does.

So there’s a lot of potential problem on the horizon for Netflix–but will it kill Netflix?  Or merely make it stronger?