Netflix Creates Qwikster For DVD Only Business 481
Frankie70 writes "Netflix CEO Reed Hastings just dropped a bombshell. In the wake of a rapid decline in Netflix's stock price last week, Hastings is taking a bold step by separating the DVD and video streaming services. The DVD-by-mail service will now be called Qwikster, and the streaming service will maintain the Netflix brand."
BIG Mistake (Score:4, Insightful)
Did not even think this through? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just stupid, but the worst part is that, it seems to me like they didn't even think through all the implications of they way they are doing this. For example, take the following from the official netflix blog.
User asks: " If a film I search for on Netflix is not available for streaming, will the website still tell me if the DVD is available? Or must I search twice?"
CEO Reed Hastings responds: "ouch. You'd have to search the second place if we didn't have it in the first place."
Ouch? Are you serious? Ouch? To me, that reads like "hmmmm, we hadn't really thought about that".
Re:Way to make the problem worse (Score:5, Insightful)
If anyone deserves to be fired it is the Netflix CEO.
This. Who's chairman of the board over there?
They want me to maintain two queues, two bills, kill the functionality of auto-adding DVD queue videos to the stream, kill the prediction service, kill the history service, all because 5% of customers are complaining of the price increase?
The shareholders need to demand new leadership immediately before all of their stock value evaporates.
Well, there's one potential benefit - maybe Amazon will acquire Qwikster and we can be done with the boneheads who have killed the formerly great Netflix.
A new name divorced from their core? (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear Reed:
I don't know you and this morning you send me an email telling me you messed up but yet I have never heard of you. I have a feeling you messed up again and didn't think this through. So now I'll need to have TWO accounts? Please reply when you know what you really want to do.
Signed
A new disgruntled customer.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
You're going to cheapen youself with a 'ster' name? Really?
And the misspelling of Quick as Qwik... this has all the telltale signs of a 50yo CEO listening to 30yo consultants about what a 15-20yo would find "hip" and "cool". The cringe factor of doing it at least ten years too late is overwhelming.
So will it still be simple to switch? (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the reasons I decided the price hikes were acceptable was that Its "month to month" in that I was going to be able to do the streaming only service, consume the new content there, than switch back to the DVD service for a couple months until they get new stuff available on streaming.
If this makes it hard to do that it further reduced the value to me and starts to make competitors like Amazon and Hulu+ look interesting. I still think Netflix is probably the better value proposition at the moment, even with the price hikes; but if this means I can't easily switch between one type of service and they other, I might have to start looking at other options for content again.
This is a dumb move, all around AFAICT. Its basically an accounting trick to make the EPS of Netflix proper look a little better, investors won't wont be fooled, customers like me will be aggravated.
Re:What an unfortunate name... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, not too sure I like the name myself either.
Why not something similar to Netflix to make it easier to find?
Qwikflix sounds much better.
It's recognizing where video is going. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:trade up netflix for apple TV (Score:5, Insightful)
The DVD-by-mail service is the only sure thing Netflix has. It costs them more, but they're not beholden to studio assholes with it. They just buy disks retail and stick them in envelopes. The streaming business model puts way too much power in the hands of the studios and lets them dick over any competitors at will.
Re:BIG Mistake (Score:5, Insightful)
You are falling for the fallacy that the CEO has a clue while in fact he is a complete moron.
A major rate hike is only done by a complete and utter moron. You do smaller less noticeable hikes over time where people do not notice it. They would not have lost HALF the people that left if Netflix's leadership had any clue at all on how to run a business.
unwarranted pessimism (Score:4, Insightful)
Let me first begin by saying, let's have some foresight here fellow Slashdot readers. If the DVD business has been increasingly difficult for Netflix to maintain, and considering when they did change the price plans, most people dropped the DVD package but kept the instant video. Why would you try to push a market that is doomed to fail especially with the rise of instant media players for the TV and applications for phones/tablets?
I would bet they have enough subscribers on their own right now to push this idea... considering they already have. I like how you all are trying to criticize a CEO for his business strategy but I think you should let their business speak for it first.. I think this is a good idea and only time will tell, I'm sorry if you're hurt that you'll have to go to another website for your DVD shipping service, but in all honesty, the DVD is dying market. Why should I ship myself a DVD if I can buy a media streamer where I can also rent or buy movies? (waiting for every angry technologist to tell me I'm wrong. meanwhile, not realizing that they're the minority in the market... especially the minority that's smart enough to pirate something if it really wants it)
This is how I look at it... you may have to sign up with two different webpages to have them hit your credit card but in return it's cheaper than having the combined Netflix instant/dvd package. ALSO, you're getting the option to combine a gamefly like service with a movie rental service. And, as the CEO said in the article, they'll be able to focus on using their capital for more movie licenses for the people (majority) who use Netflix for their streaming services.
Having said all this, Quixster is still a lame name.
Re:Embracing the disruption (Score:5, Insightful)
Having read the same comments you did, I think you're missing the point. Very few people are complaining that Netflix is doing the wrong thing by pushing streaming; lots of people are of the opinion that streaming is the future of content delivery. However, it's not ready to be the present of content delivery, and that's what most of us are lamenting. All those comments seem to end with "I'll see how things go, but if they screw up DVD rental, I'm out." I'm in the same boat - streaming is nice, but I signed up for Netflix for DVDs by mail.
For all that Steve Jobs believes it, Disc-based content delivery isn't dead, because no one has stepped up to provide the content and experience that at least some of us want. None of the fully licensed (**AA compliant) services provide equivalent features to the physical media experience: I want to be able to watch non-English-language content with subtitles, and I want full surround sound from my action movies. Some folks like to watch the "extra features" on the disc. None of us wants the bright red "buffering" screen. Since streaming services don't provide these features, we're not willing to switch, yet.
Presently, the best media-viewing experience possible is to obtain a physical DVD, rip it so that I can skip the out-of-date previews and commercials, and then watch it from a computer with appropriate A/V connections. Streaming has a lot of potential to let me skip a few of those steps, but they haven't realized that potential, yet.