Inc.com [via Hacking Netflix] recently asked five entrepreneurs what they would suggest to help Netflix win their on-going battle against Blockbuster once and for all. Let’s ignore, for a minute, the fact that it seems really weird to ask a handful of confirmed capitalists what they would do to help a single corporation to secure a market monopoly. I think Withoutabox’s David Strauss is right on the proverbial money with his suggestion that Netflix should seek out niche audiences and put a greater push behind indie films:

Netflix should distribute more obscure films. It started down this path last year when it helped to distribute The Puffy Chair, which got raves at Sundance. Targeted niche outreach of this kind is harder to do than mass outreach, but if you develop a lot of loyal little audiences over time, in the way that eBay did, you often end up with a larger audience than if you go after the mainstream.

It wasn’t that long ago that Netflix seemed to be on the forefront of this. But at this point, I’m not sure they have any interest.

A September 2006 story in WIRED traced the ‘flix’s Red Envelope Entertainment brand back from The Puffy Chair and then-recent collaborations with IFC, to earlier, less-lauded successes like Born into Brothels and Suzanne Bier’s Open Hearts. Near the end of the story, WIRED’s Erin Biba plugged Netflix’s future plans to “distribute finished movies, help filmmakers complete their pictures, and even collaborate on projects that are still on the drawing board…and maybe even allow moviemakers to circumvent the festivals altogether.” “There’s a link two clicks away from the Netflix.com homepage where anyone can submit a movie for possible distribution,” Biba marveled. “Soon the only barrier to success for filmmakers will be lack of talent.”

That link still exists…sort of. Suffice it to say, the doors are not as wide open as Biba and her sources suggested. Here’s how to get your foot in:

1. Go to the Netflix homepage.

2. Scroll all the way to the bottom. Click “Contact Us.”

3. Scroll all the way to the bottom. Click “Submit Your Film.”

4. A splash page comes up with a disclaimer: “Netflix is not always able to purchase films directly from the film’s owner and may suggest a third-party distributor as an alternative method for making your film available on Netflix.” If you’re not scared off, you can click “Submit My Film.”

5. On the next page, three paragraphs of text explain why “working with a distributor is best.” And if, for whatever reason, “your film is not available from a distributor with whom Netflix currently works,” submission instructions follow, but the clear implication is that you basically don’t have a shot in hell of getting Netflix to distribute it.

I’m not saying that Netflix has a responsibility to distribute every self-produced and micro-budgeted feature that comes their way. I’m just saying that it seems like, in a little over a year since that WIRED article was published, they’ve made a conscious (although maybe not public) decision to put their money and effort elsewhere (see that Dana Carvey thing. Or better yet, don’t). Recent Red Envelope releases include festival hits like Helvetica and Into Great Silence–by no means mainstream films, but also, not exactly evidence that Netflix is specifically trying to end run the festival system.