Netflix Playback Speed Options Won't Come Anytime Soon

Netflix recently tested the variable playback speed feature, adding a Speed option for Android users when they watch movies on the Netflix app. By that, users can adjust the speed of the content based on their preferences. However, the backlash over the new tool came quickly as dozens of cinephiles and film creators continuously shown their distaste for the way Netflix change how films would be shown. As for Netflix, the company now appears to defend its plan.

According to VP Keela Robison, the company is exploring a lot of new features, including this controversial ‘Speed’ button as well as brightness controls. In the blog post, she added that DVD players have similar features, not to mention other popular media players and YouTube also allows users to change the playback into their preferable speed.

Netflix might be able to acknowledge these potential blowbacks when it didn’t test the feature on bigger screens like TVs, but Android devices. Due to such recent reactions, Robison disclosed that variable playback won’t hit the market anytime soon until the company gets positive feedbacks from viewers in the long-term.

Of course, a film purist would find it deplorable, but note that not all Netflix content is truly artistic. There’s a slew of bingeable TV shows, and sometimes viewers need to re-watch certain moments in a film comprising of complex scenes. What’s more, they can use the original speed by default if they don’t want to change anything.