A long-awaited new Netflix feature for its browser-based interfaces as well as its Android and iOS apps now allows users to play programmes up to 1.5-times faster than realtime and 0.5-times slower
Some filmmakers and stars are concerned that being able to slowly roll backwards and forwards while a film is playing will affect its artistic integrity.
“Distributors don’t get to change the way the content is presented. Doing so is a breaking of trust and won’t be tolerated by the people who provide it,”
Judd Apatow
Netflix helpfully points out that this sort of functionality has been available on DVD players and PVRs for a long time, yet nobody has complained about that. Netflix also points out that it is responding to requests from customers, including, it says, those who have difficulty hearing dialogue and reading captions and the 80% of subscribers who use subtitles or closed captions at least once a month, often to learn new languages or simply to explore content in other languages.