Ok, has Netflix just lost its mind?
"Ok, has Netflix just lost its mind?
Netflix is rebranding its 12-year-old movies-by-mail service as Qwikster and adding video games to its catalog, Reed Hastings, the company's CEO, announced Sunday night. The Web-streaming portion will continue to be called Netflix, he wrote on the company's blog.
After the separation, people who subscribe to both services will have to log into two separate websites, Netflix.com and Qwikster.com, to manage their movie queues and account information... (via cnn)
I was one of the few who didn't freak out about the new pricing structure Netflix introduced. As a person who works online, I understand the need to make money on those endeavors, but now seeing that they are spinning off part of their service I am not sure I understand it at all anymore.
Why split off the DVD part of their service?
The only thing I can think right now is that Netflix has decided it is their mission to kill physical media.
This feels so premature. After the studios pulled out or instituted stalling tactics on streaming rentals my Netflix streaming dropped. After all If their streaming offering was better, I could see how this is a good move, but right now... ugh. To compensate I had plans to keep both. Renting DVD's for those few things I wanted to see right away and that was not available for streaming. For the rest I would just wait for it to show up on streaming or never bother watching.
I was fine paying a little more to have both physical DVD rental and streaming rental in one convient place. The convience of managing my ratings and que was one of the biggest draws to Netflix. Like most we live a busy life with our time divided and enough inconviences that no one wants to pay for another one. On top of that the extra step is one I know I will forget to take...
Then that name: Qwikster.
Really? That sounds like something Randal from Clerks thought up one morning after recovering from a heavy night of binge drinking and salsa shark attacks. Time to cancel the DVDs?
Video game rentals sweeten the deal, but I haven't turned my 360 on in about 6 months. In addition to that I tried a seperate Video game rental service but the inconvience added an extra step that I did forget to take.
And then their subscribers drop and stock drops. Not a suprise here. They claim they made the split and price changes for 4 reasons:
(1) to create a dedicated DVD rental division that takes pride in great execution and maximizes the opportunity for disc rental over the coming decade;
(2) to enable us to improve our global streaming service even more rapidly, because it is not meshed with a domestic DVD business;
(3) to enable us, with the growth in revenue, to license more streaming content and thereby improve our streaming service even more;
(4) to remain very price aggressive, with $7.99 per month for unlimited streaming of a huge library of TV shows and movies, and $7.99 per month for unlimited DVD rentals, 1 out at-a-time. (via Online Video News)
Didn't they already have a great rental division that had pride?
A big improvement to streaming would be providing a service in which I could manage both my streaming videos and my rental videos. By the way wouldn't the extra cost help to pay for them to make streaming improvements?
Wouldn't it be easier to streamline costs when both divisions are under one roof verses two seperate companies?
Sadly they forgot about and now are loosing the convience and service of one que one rating place.