No Netflix Downloads

Dave Zatz says the Netflix-TiVo partnership is dead. He points to a Reuters report:

Netflix Inc. will postpone a test launch of its online movie download service indefinitely because of problems obtaining licensing agreements from Hollywood studios, Chief Executive Reed Hastings told analysts on a conference call on Wednesday.

Hastings said the company would continue enhancing its infrastructure and developing technology to deliver online movies so the service “will be ready to launch when the content climate begins to thaw.”

The brave new world of digital media is rapidly evolving into an archipelago of tiny islands with fanatical border control officers.