Netflix Kills Qwikster

[Braedan]

I'm not sure I understand what the problem was, besides the stupid name.

The people who want movies in the mail won't be streaming, and the people with the capability to stream won't wait for movies to come in the mail. I see no downside of splitting the company, unless you want games as well as streaming movies.

Unless I'm missing a part of the picture. I'm here in freezing old Canada so I don't have access to the dvd by mail system.... or anything worth watching on stream either.

If both services contained identical content, then there would be no reason to have both streaming and mail-dvds. But there is a lot of movies/TV episodes that are only available via the physical DVD.

It's not even consistent within an entire TV series. I've seen instances where most of the episodes can be streamed, but 1 or 2 episodes will be DVD only. That makes no sense to me at all.

Ah, I see. We have neither good selection, or DVD available so I didn't know there was a discrepancy. Else wise there would be absolutely no reason to go by mail if the libraries were identical and you had a connection able to stream.

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

You know what, good on them for listening to the customers, realizing they made a mistake, and for trying to fix it. I don't see that happen often enough with big companies.

 

[gphjr14]

Here's an idea go back to the base price of $10 for 1 DVD and unlimited streaming and stop fucking with a business model that made you so successful in the first place. If they actually got new movies within the month they're released instead of like now just getting Tron it'd be worth more but they don't so it isn't, and its time they realize that.

 

[Jodah]

Weeks of time wasted, thousands of pissed off customers, and millions of dollars lost from useless advertisement and lost sales...This was clearly a good idea.

 

[SyphonX]

A sound businessman without a "while Rome burns" ego. Color me surprised. It's kind of refreshing to see a company do something like this.

I will probably be getting a Netflix sub again.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

"It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs," Hastings wrote. "This means no change: one website, one account, one password... in other words, no Qwikster."

Well no shi-

Okay, to be fair, I agree, it was good to see no apologies and overall I think that was a good way to handle things. It's also good to hear a company listening to the groans of customers for a change (for the better, no less!) because this was one of those ideas that should have been shot down from the start, but was a precocious bugger that made it out of the gate while no one with sense enough to stop it was looking.

Amazon offers digital content in addition to physical, all in one site. Last time I checked, they helped put one of their "competitors" out of business (i.e. Borders). I think it's good that Netflix shaped up to see that if Amazon can offer damn near anything on site, there is no need to force consumers into splitting up accounts for digital vs physical content.

 

[ImBigBob]

I gotta be honest - I can't care in the slightest.

I signed up for Netflix this year solely for the streaming service. No interest in the DVDs. Nothing that's happened has made me want to quit, because Netflix is a million times better than cable.

 

[ike42]

Netflix really needs to fire their CEO if they want to stay relevant. That guys is obviously completely out of touch with reality. This is just an example of a bad decision that wasn't given nearly enough discussion before announcement.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Colour me unsurprised. Unless netflix had a crippling case of not wanting money, it was only a matter of time.

 

[jawakiller]

Hey, did you hear about netflix's new service they're offering?

No, I didn't give a fuck either.

 

[Strazdas]

a batter question is when will they finally come to eastern europe! i want to use your services be your money cow but you wont let me!

 

[Skyy High]

Wait....a company listened to its customers?

I'm genuinely shocked.

 

[everythingbeeps]

I signed up for the streaming, but considering not everything was available to stream, the option to get the dvd was nice.

Now granted, there was certainly enough stuff streaming that I could have gotten my money's worth. But I quit anyway when they split the services and raised the price, just because. Yeah, it's an option I probably wouldn't have used, but I'd still like that option.

I also knew when I quit that I'd go back one day, and I'm sure I still will. But not yet. I have to see how this plays out and revisit what they have available. After I quit, I think they lost Starz or something, and I don't know what that included.

 

[Geek2theRight]

I'm glad they're keeping a single website for everything. I can understand why they might have to split things up on the back end(the business part we don't see), but there was really no reason to split things up on the user end. This keeps everything nicer and easier to use from our side, so yay!

But I don't get the big deal about the price increases. Inflation is a reality. The USPS is nearly bankrupt and about to raise prices again. Third parties are raising their streaming fees and/or pulling out altogether, neither of which is Netflix's fault. And even at the new price, Netflix is one of the best deals in video content, period. And even without Starz, it has a heck of a good streaming selection. The loss of Starz is hardly crippling.

I'm just wondering about the video game thing. I'm also a GameFly customer, so depending on just how much extra they charge for access to video games I could end up with a single account that costs less than the two separate accounts I have now. We'll see . . .

 

[randomsix]

Occam's razor strikes again.

That said, it's nice that the large hairpieces decided to do what appears to be in the interest of all parties involved.

 

[THEoriginalBRIEN]

I don't think heeding the whines and jeers from your customers is a bad business model. I think Netflix just made some bad choices and needs to realize what their subscribers actually want and stop Facebooking shit up.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

Oh lord... Man people can be fooled SOOOO easily!

HELLO! THIS MEANS JACK POOP!!! It's a freaking smoke screen and it seems like EVERYONE is falling for it like morons!

"OH hey! Sorry you all hated things the changes we made. Tell you what.. we acknowledge we screwed up! So to make things right, we'll change.. THE NAME! That's right, the people have spoken! We aren't going to change the name of our service anymore hurray!!!!"


But that wasn't what pissed people off. What pissed them off is that you hiked up the PRICE of service 60% and took away an option from the service which is what enticed people to you in the first place. Especially since newer movies don't make it to streaming fast enough, and a lot of older good obscure stuff isn't streaming either, the one disc out system with streaming worked GREAT.

Screw netflix... too many other options out there now, and with Redbox ready to rollout it's streaming service this holiday season, Netflix is about to get the booty end of the stick.

 

[Ashley Blalock]

At one point Netflix was almost perfect. Streaming for all the anime and shows I couldn't find in re-runs on cable, DVDs in the mail with no late fees for new releases or those foreign films that didn't seem to make it to streaming, and all at a lower price than adding something like HBO to a cable package.

Then things went crazy and I went down to just the streaming service.

I know it's mostly just a physiological thing on the price but a bit of a roll back on the price for the streaming and DVD combo might help to patch things up with the customer base. Unless they were going to do something like add games to the mix and then the price would seem like a great deal. Right now it seems like it's pay more for a bit less than you had in the golden age of Netflix.

 

[Antonidious]

Here's an idea go back to the base price of $10 for 1 DVD and unlimited streaming and stop fucking with a business model that made you so successful in the first place. If they actually got new movies within the month they're released instead of like now just getting Tron it'd be worth more but they don't so it isn't, and its time they realize that.

They would like to, however since this did turn out to be such a successful business model many of the film studio's and other companies who get revenue from DVD sales are doing whatever they can. The 2 years before Netflix came out, DVD sales were at an all-time high. So these companies are trying to drive Netflix out of business by increasing the costs to get licenses to show and rent out movies, and by not giving them new releases immediately.

Not much Netflix can do about this. They are being forced to pay more so they have to charge more if they want to stay in business. They do need to make a profit in order to keep going.

 

[DTWolfwood]

to answer that question in the title? No no it will not. At least not me.

coincidentally i cancelled my dvd plan the same day they sent me the Email about keeping the 2 the same XD