Netflix is putting the hurt on prices!

With BB I had to mail on Friday for them to process, hopefully on Monday, to get the New release, maybe Wednesday. It was horrible. At leaset with NF, I mail on Saturday to process on Monday, for new release received by me on Tuesday.

S~
 
Our watching is restricted to fri and sun, so the Monday mail in is good for me as long as I get them by Friday. I do admit they are slower.
 
Typically, I watch on Friday, mail it on Saturday and get my next one from NF no later than Tuesday. I have one disc-at-a-time and dropped streaming due to the price increase. When they don't even have any of the Matrix films available for streaming (and they've been out for years), what's the point? They're losing their Starz contract, so all those movies and shows for streaming are going away by early next year also. I see problems for NF in the future...
 
E-mail from NF this morning

"I messed up. I owe you an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.

So here is what we are doing and why.

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.

It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you.

I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully yours,

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments."

S~
 
Qwikster can take a leap into the dumpster for all I care. Why and the heck would people want to pay for two separate services (at a 60% price increase) from the same company when they are busily trying to bundle services and consolidate billing to save money and uncomplicate their lives? I'm sorry Netflunks, but if I can order a DVD from you then I should should be able to stream it (assuming it's available) at no additional cost; and vice-versa. Integrating DVD and Streaming (albeit limited offerings) are what make Netflix successful...running them as two separate business entitites is a mistake IMO, especially given this economy.
 
If you ever ran a business then you may understand why Netflix is doing this. For those who don't know about such things, Hastings briefly explains it in his letter. I went through a similar splitting of different profit center products and services targeted at the same customer in my business. Ended up dividing it too and eventually the original business withered and died. I predict some day DVD mailing will wither and die, whether it is from Blockbuster or from Quickster. Everything is moving to Streaming. Today, I don't even have a simple DVD player in my home theater rack. My daughter dumped her DVD player for a Roku HD. Times are changing and we know some people want to hang onto the old, probably still have VHS players and use them to time shift NTSC TV channels, what's left. :)
 
Eventually I see the DVD rental by mail and stores going away, but not right now. There just isn't enough stuff available via download to get rid of the DVD.
 
Eventually I see the DVD rental by mail and stores going away, but not right now. There just isn't enough stuff available via download to get rid of the DVD.

but there are too many people that dont have access to high speed internet or dont subscribe to it

and even some of those that have it are on limited use (wireless, satellite, ect)
 
but there are too many people that dont have access to high speed internet or dont subscribe to it

and even some of those that have it are on limited use (wireless, satellite, ect)

Yeah, that too.
 
Well, Xmen was long wait and shipped the same day as my return, Hanna was mailed yesterday to BB, they got it this AM, and are now shipping Thor (long wait) today. Not bad so far, and no 30 day wait on some movies. I'll be keeping them for now.
 
Eventually I see the DVD rental by mail and stores going away, but not right now. There just isn't enough stuff available via download to get rid of the DVD.

I suspect Netflix will be improving the streaming selections at a faster pace now that their overall is in trouble with the public perception. I just tuned to it on my Vizio and I see they have 193 in the new Arrivals category. I've seen 32 of the movies and watched one while I was there I hadn't seen or heard of before. It was quite good. The Encounter Many are not new but if I haven't seen them and they are interesting, who cares if they were released in the theater last year?
 
Problem is, more content owners are wanting to get away from streaming to drive demand. Look at CBS , Hbo and now starz who just pulled out.
 
Problem is, more content owners are wanting to get away from streaming to drive demand. Look at CBS , Hbo and now starz who just pulled out.

They do not mind streaming if they can collect the money they think streaming is worth. Starz (and probably HBO) wants to be in a separate premium tier that Netflix refused. Perhaps Block Buster will agree and make available Starz on demand and HBO content as separate add on premium packages.

Both Starz and HBO stream now over the internet if you subscribe to their package.
 
You aren't going to get streaming of these premium channels at a price you want to pay. This is just another version of the Lin/espn shakedowns, and you see how that is working.

I just think as soon as someone gets an idea at a feasible price, the content owners figure out a way to make it niche and not feasible any more.
 
They know what the plan is but the public didn't want it yet. Netflix jumped into this too fast for the typical non-tech person to appreciate where we are all headed with our media. Someday, the public will see that they pay far too much for media when the cost includes shipping and handling. In addition, when they get used to selecting a video from a digital library as opposed to ordering by mail, larger selection and instant response, Netflix will have to make the move or lose market share. We're just not there yet.

One observation I made as a shareholder in Netflix, is that the news articles are all telling a lie regarding the stock price and the shareholder acceptance of this move. While the stock received an initial pop in premarket trading, since the market opened, its trading has fallen steadily throughout the morning as short sellers continue to drive the stock down. It is difficult to say if the pop we saw in netflix, albeit a tiny pop was due to the change in plans re Quickflix or due to overall market bullishness this morning. The Nasdaq was up by 78 pts primarily due to Apple and Google which continued to go higher. I have no idea why the press is painting a completely opposite story since anyone can clearly see the market reaction was negative to the Netflix announcement. I haven't seen a single article state the truth this morning about the direction Netflix stock is headded. I have no idea why this is happening.
 
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