Why Netflix is Splitting Itself in Two (HILARIOUS Must Read Cartoon Story)

1 posted on 09/19/2011 5:38:17 PM PDT by PJ-Comix

I cancelled my netflix membership about five years ago. Yer gonna have to fill me in on what this is talking about.

I mean, please fill me in.

2 posted on 09/19/2011 5:46:50 PM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)

Get up to speed HERE.

3 posted on 09/19/2011 5:51:38 PM PDT by PJ-Comix (The Overseer shall promulgate rules for party conduct)

4 posted on 09/19/2011 5:54:31 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)

It’s almost as stupid as government. The only difference is that they have competition, and they are going to find out the hard way.

5 posted on 09/19/2011 5:54:49 PM PDT by Brilliant

6 posted on 09/19/2011 5:56:51 PM PDT by dannyboy72a (the circuit is closing)

At least we got this HILARIOUS cartoon story out of it.

7 posted on 09/19/2011 5:58:02 PM PDT by PJ-Comix (The Overseer shall promulgate rules for party conduct)

The email we got today from that whining CEO was funny.
We do Red Box for new release and streaming from NetFlix, so far its working.

8 posted on 09/19/2011 6:00:51 PM PDT by svcw ( http://www.internetlastpage.com)

Netflix splitting itself to become GameFly and BitTorrent

9 posted on 09/19/2011 6:02:49 PM PDT by bigbob

NF’s streaming movies are REALLY off the wall.

Some good ones, like The Fastest Indian, The Edge.

Some really weird like The Girl Nextdoor.

10 posted on 09/19/2011 6:13:40 PM PDT by bicyclerepair ( REPLACE D-W-S ! http://www.karenforcongress.com)

Thanks!

Glad I dumped ‘em.

11 posted on 09/19/2011 6:24:55 PM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)

LOL — Best comment of the day.

12 posted on 09/19/2011 6:26:23 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)

I just reieved this emial from netflix:

"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 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"

13 posted on 09/19/2011 7:04:23 PM PDT by JoSixChip (Top 10% of wage earners pay 70% of total income taxes collected. Bottom 50% pay less then 3%, fair?)

After all these years I was actually going to press the button and subscribe to Netflix

I thought I would wait a day or two and see if I still wanted to spend more of my money and the very next day I read here on FR that they were splitting the service and their selection was not as good as I had thought.

I will never join Netflix.

14 posted on 09/19/2011 7:06:00 PM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)

Except for a fortunate few who have very high bandwidth connections and don’t particularly care about consistent high quality video, streaming is just not ready for prime time.

Until it is, hard media is the way to go for most people IF:.

Your connection doesn’t maintain consistent 5-to-8 Mbs speeds for quality video streaming.

Other members of your household are sharing the network bandwidth on other computers and starving your video feed down to VHS quality.

You don’t enjoy slowdowns, pixilization, and other video issues when watching a favorite film.

15 posted on 09/19/2011 7:07:34 PM PDT by TrueKnightGalahad

16 posted on 09/19/2011 7:12:52 PM PDT by TSgt (When in the Course of human events...)

To: TrueKnightGalahad

I’ve used the streaming option with much success however Dolby 5.1 & DTS surround are not available with streaming.

17 posted on 09/19/2011 7:16:14 PM PDT by TSgt (When in the Course of human events...)

The only difference is that they have competition, and they are going to find out the hard way.

And that competition I believe is... WALMART. I hear they want to get into the movie streaming business which is more profitable then the DVD in the mail.

18 posted on 09/19/2011 7:37:22 PM PDT by John123 (US$ - I owe you nothing. Euro - Who owes you nothing.)

Quicksterflix, we hardly knew you.

19 posted on 09/19/2011 7:41:51 PM PDT by InvisibleChurch (welcome dies irae)

I only subscribed to Netflix to watch on my phone, so it doesn’t affect me too much, but I can see where old users would be upset.

20 posted on 09/19/2011 8:01:59 PM PDT by scott7278 ("...I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked..." - BHO)

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