Qwikster: Netflix's NGE

[Numtini]

So I woke up this morning to find an "apology" from the CEO of netflix for the way they handled their price increases, which have apparently cost them a million customers and killed their stock price. But the "apology" wasn't an apology, it was a note that they're going to completely separate streaming and DVD rentals, spinning off DVDs into "Qwikster" a completely separate company and website. I really didn't care about the price increases, I've had a Roku forever and watched the selection explode. That wasn't going to keep going forever without the cost going up. (Not that I was happy to pay more, but I can see the value increasing.) Nor do I care about the branding.

But I care a great deal about the websites being separated. No more going to one site and looking for the movie and just routing it into the correct queue. And no more DVD queue movies popping into streaming when they became available. I cannot fathom what they're thinking and from reading the feedback, I do not seem to be alone. In particular, it seems to have irritated long time people who really weren't bothered by the price increases because of the utility of the service.

Given that the biggest reason to stick with netflix for DVDs is about to disappear, has anyone else used Blockbuster or any of the other options? What other options are there for that matter? We had GreenCine for a while and their selection of obscure video was great, but their shipments were glacial, sometimes taking four or five days for a turnaround.

[Arrrgh]

Sounds like a franchise brothel for preemies.

[Miasma]

Updates to Your Netflix Subscription

[Merusk]

 

For a company that once seemed so savvy they've certainly stepped in it the last few months.  I was worried about the streaming portion going tits-up - as more and more companies are being stupid and pulling content and not offering it on their own service -  but had confidence their DVD market would stay strong until such time as all the issues were worked out.  So much for that.

As for their stock price.. it was at $304/share as of July, prior to announcing the increase.  It's at $157/share right now and been on a plummet since early September.

[Mrbloodworth]

All this seems reactionary, and not very well thought out. Also fells like they want out of the DVD shipping game.

[Sky]

DVDs are dying. We're prepping the circ staff for a massive influx of donations starting in January. Streaming and blu-rays are starting to eat their lunch. We saw the same cycle with VHS.

I just wish Netflix could offer more (and better) streaming selections. Tired of searching for things and finding them only on DVD, 480i is for losers 

[shiznitz]

But I care a great deal about the websites being separated. No more going to one site and looking for the movie and just routing it into the correct queue. And no more DVD queue movies popping into streaming when they became available. I cannot fathom what they're thinking and from reading the feedback, I do not seem to be alone. In particular, it seems to have irritated long time people who really weren't bothered by the price increases because of the utility of the service.

Well said.  Splitting them is dumb from a customer point of view.

DVDs are dying. We're prepping the circ staff for a massive influx of donations starting in January. Streaming and blu-rays are starting to eat their lunch. We saw the same cycle with VHS.

In my world Blu-ray are still DVDs. 

[KallDrexx]

What a retarded move.  DVDs are not dying, if for no other reason than most good stuff you can't stream.  Netflix's competitive advantage was the DVD and streaming combination, and now that they don't have that why would I stay with them. 

Sure Amazon Prime doesn't have as much of a selection, but it's essentially free to me since I paid for Prime solely for free shipping.

[Big Gulp]

DVDs are dying. We're prepping the circ staff for a massive influx of donations starting in January. Streaming and blu-rays are starting to eat their lunch. We saw the same cycle with VHS.

I just wish Netflix could offer more (and better) streaming selections. Tired of searching for things and finding them only on DVD, 480i is for losers 

The content companies are idiotic because frankly Netflix isn't their competition; bittorrent is.  Netflix is idiotic because their streaming selection isn't good enough to stand on its own two feet.  I already canceled my account before this debacle since Redbox is now a better value for me on the physical media side, and I already have an Amazon prime account giving me fairly comparable streaming for nothing.

This new division makes it easy to sell off the DVD by mail business, but it alienates costumers and is premature by a long shot.

[Merusk]

What a retarded move.  DVDs are not dying, if for no other reason than most good stuff you can't stream.  Netflix's competitive advantage was the DVD and streaming combination, and now that they don't have that why would I stay with them. 

Sure Amazon Prime doesn't have as much of a selection, but it's essentially free to me since I paid for Prime solely for free shipping.

Exactly.  If anything then streaming is the medium in danger in the US.  ISP bandwith caps, more providers pulling content from services or unwilling to negotiate - plus those providers getting pressure from cable companies who don't want to lose the on-demand monopoly and HBO/ Showtime, etc.

There's a lot of money tied up in the old way of doing things, and that money's working hard to kill streaming or get its own piece of the pie at the inconvenience or detriment of consumers.

[Salamok]

They better not go make me rate all my shit again.  Speaking of which is there any way to view my entire list of previously watched/rated movies, I only seem to be able to see a few pages of the top rated stuff (4+ stars).  I also used to like the website but in the rush to dumb it down for consoles some of the nicer features have disappeared.

[Khaldun]

It's a pretty colossal clusterfuck in multiple directions. In fact, it's sort of a microcosm of how head-up-ass the culture industry as a whole is right now about format and distribution, with a special sprinkling of completely unique and unnecessary stupid on top from the Netflix top execs.

[Numtini]

So has anyone used Blockbuster? They're cheaper, have no extra charge for blu ray, and if the queues are separated, I'm going to have to go to two sites anyway.

[Mrbloodworth]

No PS3 Support.

[schild]

Neither here nor there but Qwikster is really hard to type for some reason (qwik is just not natural) and the name sucks.

[Trippy]

And the Twitter account is owned by a foul-mouthed stoner

[Ard]

Yeah, I'm really confused on the name myself.  Why they didn't just go with Netflix DVDs or Netflix Discs is beyond me.  At least they'd keep the same branding, even if they did ultimately plan to kill off their physical media branch sooner or later.  Their stock ticker is fun to watch right now though.  It's not on the straight plunge to the bottom it was last week, but it's still headed down.

[Ingmar]

They aren't going with something like Netflix DVD because this is almost certainly a step towards spinning them off as a separate company.

[caladein]

They better not go make me rate all my shit again.  Speaking of which is there any way to view my entire list of previously watched/rated movies, I only seem to be able to see a few pages of the top rated stuff (4+ stars).  I also used to like the website but in the rush to dumb it down for consoles some of the nicer features have disappeared.

You should be able to see it all from the links on the relevant pages, Ratings on the Suggestions page and "Show all DVD and Instant activity" from the Queue pages, but here's the direct links:

Ratings: http://movies.netflix.com/MoviesYouveSeen
Disc Activity: https://www.netflix.com/RentalActivity?all=true
Streaming Activity: https://account.netflix.com/WiViewingActivity

So has anyone used Blockbuster? They're cheaper, have no extra charge for blu ray, and if the queues are separated, I'm going to have to go to two sites anyway.

I used Blockbuster Online for a long time (basically up until the NXE got announced) and its turn-around times were crap compared to Netflix.  They weren't GameFly-bad, but switching to Netflix was a huge surprise.

[Thrawn]

Once I can stream Amazon Prime on my Wii/PS3/phone I doubt I'll hold onto Netflix anymore.

[shiznitz]

They aren't going with something like Netflix DVD because this is almost certainly a step towards spinning them off as a separate company.

The streaming company will be hard pressed to stand alone.  Costs for content rights will keep rising the more recent the content they want.  A business model that pays large lump sums up front for content rights and then tries to get that money back + profit by charging lots subscribers a small monthly fee is in an inherently risky position.

[Teleku]

And the Twitter account is owned by a foul-mouthed stoner

http://twitter.com/#!/Qwikster


Haha, wow, this entire thing was so poorly thought out and half assed.

[HaemishM]

I got the same email this morning. It sounds to me like their entire marketing and sales division had a stroke overnight and can no longer think in linear terms. You know, linear like the price on their stock ticker going straight down, or the meter on their subscribers pegging freefall. Not having the goddamn smarts to determine that their fancy new brand name (probably bought from a really snazzy ad agency that doesn't understand multi-market research) they want for their baseline service is taken on one of the biggest social media sites on the planet, and worse, taken by a foul-mouthed jackass who will make their brand look like morons.

It is a compass pointing to magnetic wrong. Every single decision they've made since the price increase and every public word they've said about it seems to have been engineered to piss their customers right the fuck off. When you have a successful business model, you don't just split the successful parts off with an entirely new brand, no matter how limited a lifespan you think that service has. The DVD by mail service won't go away for a while, unless you kill it off intentionally, which is what it looks like they are trying to do. Yes, streaming only is the wave of the future. That future ain't here yet, asscheese.

[Trippy]

Yes, streaming only is the wave of the future. That future ain't here yet, asscheese.

It is now

[HaemishM]

The future is born in fire. Too bad we're the ones getting our asses burned. 

[Hawkbit]

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/netflix

[naum]

The Great NetFlix Freakout

[naum]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timothylee/2011/09/19/netflix-is-not-facing-the-innovators-dilemma/

A service like Netflix faces a fundamental chicken-and-egg problem. You can’t get an established base of users unless you have a fairly complete library—users aren’t going to be very interested in a service that only has half the movies they want to watch. But if you don’t have a large user base, you don’t have much leverage against major content providers, who are going to hold back their best content as leverage to get terms favorable to themselves.

Luckily, the classic, DVD-based version of Netflix had an ace in the hole: copyright’s First Sale Doctrine. If a studio wasn’t willing to license its content to Netflix directly, Netflix simply went out and purchased copies of DVDs at retail. Renting out your legally-purchased copy of a DVD isn’t copyright infringement, so there was nothing the studios could do to stop this. And this strengthened Netflix’s position at the bargaining table, because they could credibly threaten to walk away from the table if the studios made unreasonable demands.

This became crucially important as Netflix moved into the streaming era. There is no equivalent to the First Sale doctrine for online streaming. If you want to run a streaming service, you have to cut a deal with each copyright holder whose content you want to stream. And Hollywood, fearful of losing control and undermining its existing revenue streams, has been cagey about allowing Netflix to stream its best content.

The DVD-rental option gave Netflix a crucial fallback position at the negotiating table. Because Netflix has a complete catalog of movies available for rent by DVD, they don’t need any specific title in streaming format. So they could cut deals with the content creators that offered them reasonable terms, and stick with DVD rentals for the rest. That’s a little bit inconvenient for customers, but it’s better than agreeing to terms that would force Netflix to jack up its prices.

[Soln]

If you have a Roku box you can stream Amazon Prime Movies & TV through your PS3.  I do it now.  HD no problem.

Amazon Instant Video on the Roku Player

[Merusk]

I wonder just how low netflix stock will sink as this sinks-in. They dropped another 7% today alone.  (Although that's nothing compared to the plummet last Wednesday, which I think is when Starz announced no more stuff for NFLX.)

I have yet to hear from anyone, analyst or user who thinks this is a good idea.   If I didn't know better I'd accuse the idiot of deliberately tanking the place.  Stockholders will have his head sooner rather than later.

[Sand]

What was it? Two months ago I told everyone Netflix sucked and was dying?

As of 2012 Netflix will lose all Sony, Disney and Starz (so no more Sparticus) from streaming. There is NO WAY HBO is going to agree to allow them to stream its content.
They are for all intents and purposes dead. Which is to bad. Yes, the content creators are just as much to blame but that doesnt remove all the blame from Netflix.


I will keep them until the end of the year and cancel when they lose all their content.

[Ard]

(Although that's nothing compared to the plummet last Wednesday, which I think is when Starz announced no more stuff for NFLX.)

Last week was the actual price hike, which lost them a million+ customers.  This drop was about as third as much as that one, but the real ramifications won't hit until the day the company actually splits in two, which sounds like it's only a few weeks off.  I'd be shocked if there isn't an equally large drop come then also.

[Khaldun]

The more I watch this, the more I think this is the New Coke 2011: a wonderful, beautiful case study that will keep MBA programs alive and ticking for years to come as a "teachable moment".

Netflix won the world, crushed its rivals, heard the lamentations of their women, and then said, "WTF, Thulsa Doom went away, now what?".  Aquilonia was shining right there in their faces and they decided to go blow the gold in a bar with some whores. That email was from a sad barbarian who woke up in the pokey with half his gold gone and a bunch of VD on his dick.

[Tannhauser]

I got the email too but I think I'll go to Amazon Prime.  I just bought Thor and X-Men FC on Blu-Ray and will rent other new releases thru AP.
Netflix messed up by jacking the prices way up and were smug about it.  Many folks are money-squeezed and entertainment is the first and most logical thing to cut back on.

I understand the license fees were going up for Netflix, but the price hike shouldn't have been so high, it was like 60% FFS.  Then the snotty attitude.  They should have let subscribers know ahead of time of a price hike was coming and not have been such dicks about it.

Netflix is netfuxed.

Will Blockbuster online make a comeback?

[Tannhauser]

The more I watch this, the more I think this is the New Coke 2011: a wonderful, beautiful case study that will keep MBA programs alive and ticking for years to come as a "teachable moment".

Netflix won the world, crushed its rivals, heard the lamentations of their women, and then said, "WTF, Thulsa Doom went away, now what?".  Aquilonia was shining right there in their faces and they decided to go blow the gold in a bar with some whores. That email was from a sad barbarian who woke up in the pokey with half his gold gone and a bunch of VD on his dick.

Love your Conan metaphor!

I think Netfix hummed along just fine with techies who grew the business.  It was when the MBA's arrived that things went pear-shaped.