Netflix and...Qwikster?

[Maniacal]

If you subscribe to XFINITY TV for your TV viewing, it's not a ripoff at all, it's a puton.

Once you have to pay your own bills you can comment on how much value for your money you're getting out of cable.

Even the people I know who still have cable still download most of the movies and TV shows they watch (and didn't or have yet to buy, some of them are much more likely/able to buy the TV shows they like when they come out on DVD). Cable is pretty much a rip off unless you really love watching sports.

I think they are changing their business model to better adapt to the changing times.. which means more streaming and less physical media.

Maybe they'll sell off Qwikster or eventually kill it, but I think that they are separating the two to shield the streaming side from any bad financial stuff that might happen to the dvd shipping side.

I'm sure they will sell off Qwikster sometime in the near future, although I wish they could ship those DVDs across the border to Canada hassle free because between sometimes poor internet infrastructure, download caps and blu-ray DVDs it would be a great service for many people.

 

[MjM]

Comcast asks to subscribe for "XFINITY TV", which is not exactly "free". I only have their Internet, so their on-demand is not an option for me. I'll better stay with Netflix for $8/mo.

Ah, I'm speaking from having Time Warner, which, IIRC, did not charge extra for their On Demand services. However, to get say, HBO, CineMAX, Starz, etc. on demand, you had to have had those channels. Otherwise the service is pretty much free; except for the very latest movies.

 

[kramerfan86]

Seems like netflix could have saved themselves a lot of trouble and outrage by just being gentler and slower about the change. I get why they have to charge more since the studios are getting greedier (always shoot themselves in the foot and try to chase off consumers legally paying for their services), but to raise the price all at once before showing any progress on adding more material to the streaming library was a poor decision. In fact I believe right after announcing this they lost material from their catalog.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

I am not certain if it is entirely the MPAA fault here. It is clear the rising popularity of TPB, and the increased sophistication of P2P live streaming in some sites are stealing some of the internet-experienced customers away.

On the Alexa Top 500 Global Sites, TPB (Rank 84) and have passed over Netflix (Rank 100) this year.

There will be more people downloading movies, and then later will upload them via live streaming with new and better P2P protocols for their own micro communities (as long as they are prerecorded streaming). Even the founder of Bittorrent, and many others, are now experimenting better ways to do this.

 

[Maniacal]

I am not certain if it is entirely the MPAA fault here. It is clear the rising popularity of TPB, and the increased sophistication of P2P live streaming in some sites are stealing some of the internet-experienced customers away.

Unless it is on Netflix that is the ONLY way to get most of that content if it isn't on DVD yet or you don't waste your money on cable or satalite. Any kind of actual numbers is unknowable but I've seen numerous comments by people (amaericans mostly, since Canadian Netflix doesn't have nearly as much content) who were quite happy to pay a relatively small cost to use Netflix instead of pirating everything. Netflix is also far more convenient and safer.

 

[bhsup]

It looks like they've seen the light re: quickster. Pasting an email I just got from Netflix. Though really irrelevant to me as I am just a streaming customer. (Yes, I altered the salutation )

Dear God of Thunder and Rock and Roll,

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.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We're constantly improving our streaming selection. We've recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we've added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.

Respectfully,

The Netflix Team

 

[Butterball]

Netflix keeps playing with their business model. I guess all that mail is starting to bog down their growth.

 

[illram]

I am very glad they nixed the change, it's unfortunate this whole thing was done so sloppily though. I would hate to be one of the people at Netflix that was basically ordered to dig holes and then fill them in.

 

[bhsup]

Yeah, this was about as well planned out as "New Coke" was. Man, that was one hilarious snafu to watch.

 

[Artifis]

It was a good thing they changed it back anyway. One thing that was missing from this discussion was the fact that Netflix (or Qwikster) would have found it harder to get the rights to stream movies from major studios. Many are growing more wary of Netflix's growth.

 

[illram]

Well their original email (and news stories about the switch) indicated the change was to make it easier to obtain streaming rights, because as you point out studios are now charging them an arm and a leg and competitors are paying more to deny Netflix those rights. (E.g., Comcast paying to get movies before Netflix does.) Apparently the DVD by mail business is not the money maker it used to be and they wanted to make it a separate company so that Netflix could spend more money on big licensing deals for streaming content. Of course now all that apparently goes out the window I guess....

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm glad they got rid of the change. I wasn't really looking forward to using something called Qwikster. Worst name ever. I canceled the streaming service (bastards put me in for it automatically when before I used the one movie a month plan). I even reduced it to the cheapo 2 movies a month (one at a time). I don't watch enough movies to need more than that.