Qwikster: Netflix's NGE

[Xanthippe]

Here's an article about that very thing - Netflix pairing with Facebook.  (Hastings is on the board of FB, by the way).

A 1988 video rental privacy law is keeping Netflix’s U.S. users from sharing what they’re watching on Facebook.

Netflix on Thursday announced it is integrating its video streaming service with Facebook — allowing users to watch videos on either site and see what people on their friends lists are viewing.

It will be available in 44 countries except in Netflix’s biggest market -- the United States, because of the 1998 Video Privacy Protection Act that prohibits the disclosure of video sales or rental records, the company explained.

[Mrbloodworth]

Seems like it would be cheaper to get the law changed.

[Chimpy]

Seems like it would be cheaper to get the law changed.

It might not be cheaper, but it would keep them from going straight into obscurity.

10 years from now people will be "Hey, you remember Netflix and how cool it was? Whatever happened to them?" at the current rate.

[sinij]

I'm pretty sure he didn't mean devices that way, but a roku, an apple TV and a PS3 all hooked into his TV.

Yep. To many streaming services right now require unique hardware. Fuck that.

For uninitiated, can you please explain this? Why would you stream to anything but your media PC?

[caladein]

Because for the most part content companies don't want to give full-HD to the PC.  Netflix for a while only had HD on set-top boxes and Vudu's still the same way.

[HaemishM]

Also because dedicated boxes are usually a shitton easier to deal with, maintain and work with than a goddamn PC for media content? Kind of like how it's easier to own a console than a PC for video games.

[Xanthippe]

For uninitiated, can you please explain this? Why would you stream to anything but your media PC?

I use TiVo to stream Netflix (which I do not recommend, by the way, because the TiVo/Netflix interface stinks), and I like to watch movies in my bedroom.  I don't have a media PC set up yet that is connected to anything other than a monitor at my computer desk.

[Mrbloodworth]

Netflix Secures Dreamworks Partnership

Netflix Inc has won a deal to pipe Dreamworks Animation movies starting in 2013, the first time a major Hollywood studio has chosen Internet streaming over traditional pay TV, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told the newspaper the deal, worth $30 million per picture to Dreamworks over a number of years, was "game-changing" and represented a bet that viewers would soon no longer make distinctions between content streamed on the Internet or through cable.

[Sand]

So two years from now Netflix might get some decent movies again after losing Disney and Sony in 2012.
 

[Xanthippe]

Amazon makes a deal with Fox for streaming.

Fox has reached a deal with Amazon Prime to begin making several movies and TV shows from its library available for streaming, including "24," "Arrested Development," and "The Wonder Years."

The deal, announced on Amazon.com Monday by CEO Jeff Bezos, follows one with CBS in July that added 2,000 episodes of CBS shows to the number of titles available for streaming. Monday's deal brings the total number available on Amazon Prime to 11,000 as it tries to mount a challenge to the struggling Netflix.

[Ragnoros]

I feel it! The magic free market fairy is sprinkling her pixie-dust upon streaming video services! 

[Mrbloodworth]

Netflix Adds New AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel Content; Now Streaming 'The Walking Dead' And More

Season 1 of the popular and critically-acclaimed zombie drama "The Walking Dead" will become available immediately, per the release, with other programs like Fred Armisen's "Portlandia," "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys" and David Cross' "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret" following soon after.

[Yegolev]

I can stop procrastinating on cancelling, then.

[MuffinMan]

I was excited to see The Wonder Years available for streaming. Lasted halfway through the shitty cover of a cover at the opening and then turned it off.

[Yegolev]

That got a chuckle.

[shiznitz]

The Wonder Years was good when I was young enough to think Winnie was cute without being a perv.  I cannot imagine having any patience for the show now.

[JWIV]

I can stop procrastinating on cancelling, then.

I just said the hell with it myself.  We sit on movies forever anyhow, so screw it, it'll be cheaper to just do the occasional rental instead of paying 23 bucks a month.  Hell, with the money we're saving on downgrading to Netflix's streaming only plan (which is mandatory for the kids programming if nothing else), I can pick up amazon prime as well and still come out well ahead.

[CmdrSlack]

I just checked via my Xbox, and no Walking Dead yet. 

[Krakrok]

So it's not so much that they're trying to piss off customers as it is that they're trying to set themselves up to be able to send the information about what you're viewing on Netflix to Facebook.

A few years ago Netflix went all social networking with the whole friends, profile, sharing blah blah. And then they removed it. I always thought it was lame that they removed it. Wonder if that is why.

[MuffinMan]

The friends feature was one of my favorite things about Netflix. I think they removed it around a year ago quoting that only something like 2% of people used it.

[Salamok]

Also because dedicated boxes are usually a shitton easier to deal with, maintain and work with than a goddamn PC for media content? Kind of like how it's easier to own a console than a PC for video games.

Maybe it used to be easier to own a console for games, but now that consoles are online it seems like I have to update the friggen PS3 and agree to some new draconion ToS once a week.  There should be some clause where you can return your hardware for a full refund any time they modify the ToS.  I wonder if this constitutes signing under duress "I just wanted to watch my netflix on the device I shelled out $300 for your honor!".

P.S. - In case you can't tell I just had to spend 10 minutes updating my system and now netflix streaming (along with their website) appears to be down, it shouldn't be this hard to watch a movie.

[CmdrSlack]

Nobody would use the "Return your device" clause. Moreover, if you've had the damn thing for a few years, it's not like returning it would return both parties to status quo ante.

I agree that clickwrap licenses are bogus, but our courts support them. If anything, we need some federal statutes that regulate EULAs and TOSes in general. This will never happen in our lifetimes, but I can dream.

[Yegolev]

I'm so far pleased with the potential of my Roku 2, even if I've only watched some old Muppets internet shorts.  Amazon Prime streaming will be fantastic once I get tired of Dark Souls.  It doesn't support AVI, though.

[luckton]

Qwikster is dead.

/thread

[KallDrexx]

What a clusterfuck of a company.  Bad management and indecisive.

[Chimpy]

How much money did they pay some consulting firm to come up with the Qwikster name/logo too? Usually those things are both ridiculously expensive and terrible.

[sinij]

What a clusterfuck of a company.  Bad management and indecisive.

Disagree, its better to revert bad decision than to follow through with it.

[KallDrexx]

Disagree, its better to revert bad decision than to follow through with it.

I agree that it's a good decision to revert back, but it clearly shows they don't have any idea how to proceed with the company and have no decisive idea for the future.  By It I don't mean just this discussion but the whole sequence of bad decisions of the past weeks.

[Merusk]

It's being spun the opposite way by what I'd just heard.  Quickster was the way of proceeding forward, because DVDs are a 'living-dead' medium.  This was Netflix's way of being able to cut it loose without affecting their new core business model (streaming).  When DVDs were finally dead* then Quickster would have been closed without much kerfuffle about "what will Netflix do now?" The fuck-up was that it was poorly handled and overly burdensome on the consumer.  It made things more complex on the consumer while making things simpler for investors/ the company.   

Plus it's way, WAY too early in streaming's life to make such plans.  Death of DVDs and physical medium is, IMO,  still 10-20+ years away. Sorry we just don't have the 'net infrastructure to kill them entirely.  Major cities? Sure.  You've still got rural regions outlying those cities and (for you "stop growing food, we don't need farmers" idiots) large portions of the US where such streaming services are going to run into the bandwidth caps that are becoming more prevalent.

[tazelbain]

I think they got cocky.  Now they got their realty check I expect good things.  Still doesn't change the fact that big media is swinging for their balls and having the DVD and Streaming tried together makes them easier target.

[Xanthippe]

Reed Hastings has always been cocky.  Arrogant too.  His earlier success was more luck than brilliance, but he mistakenly thought the opposite.  He doesn't quite get that what the customers value is not what the shareholders value.

[Paelos]

Blockbuster has done a much better job in the latter half of this war than the first half, for sure.

[Trippy]

How much money did they pay some consulting firm to come up with the Qwikster name/logo too? Usually those things are both ridiculously expensive and terrible.

Whatever they paid it is still a drop in the bucket compared to the $5 billion in market cap lost from that announcement and it doesn't appear like the stock is going recover any significant portion of that even with today's announcement.

[Furiously]

What is redbox doing right that blockbuster did wrong?  Or is it just not having a full store they are paying rent for?

[MuffinMan]

What is redbox doing right that blockbuster did wrong?  Or is it just not having a full store they are paying rent for?

I think it's the ease of just having it there when you walk into the grocery store, McDonald's or whatever. Kind of like buying chocolate and soda in the checkout line. What's an extra dollar for a movie when you're already at the store.