Qwikster is Dead, DVDs Staying at Netflix

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Netflix has scrapped the Qwikster idea and will keep DVDs and digital downloads on the same site. I would credit Hastings with making a smart move but, the truth be told, all he did was bow to public pressure (again).

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.
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The real question is, Who didn't see this happening after the massive backlash and Blockbuster's pseudo-smear campaign to gain customers?

More publicity= more business for them. They at least are salvaging this mega fuckup Qwikster thing. I'm taking bets on how long the current CEO last at netflix though
 
Probably too late for them. A lot of customers aren't happy with the way Netflix has been doing business lately. I've moved on because of all of the changes they've been making, and the technical issues they've been having. My blu ray player had Vudu loaded on it, and I just use that most of the time now. I really didn't use netflix enough to justify having it anyway, and Vudu has a much better selection with much better quality.

I might subscribe to Amazon prime and try out their streaming service.
 
Kinda makes you wonder how people make it to be CEO's. Steve Jobs I get. Genius, innovative and a trend setter/creator. Guys that think its a good idea to take a working idea and split it in two, I don't get. Hell I'm a high school drop out and I could've told them it was a bad idea.
 
Good decision by Netflix. A step in the right direction.

Side note: Still sticking with Netflix even though I am seriously considering Amazon.
 
Going to say it probably has more to do with investor opinion ;)


QUOTE=MacLeod;1037860313]Kinda makes you wonder how people make it to be CEO's. Steve Jobs I get. Genius, innovative and a trend setter/creator. Guys that think its a good idea to take a working idea and split it in two, I don't get. Hell I'm a high school drop out and I could've told them it was a bad idea.[/QUOTE]

As far as I know up to these recent debacles he's done a very good job as CEO. Everyone F's up sometimes.
 
This is telling us that the Netflix business model
is weak and poorly run by management.

Indecision can get you broke fast.
 
MacLeod said:
Kinda makes you wonder how people make it to be CEO's. Steve Jobs I get. Genius, innovative and a trend setter/creator. Guys that think its a good idea to take a working idea and split it in two, I don't get. Hell I'm a high school drop out and I could've told them it was a bad idea.
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He co-founded Netflix, and he's on the MS & FB boards, so despite recent mistakes I'd gamble that the dude does have a clue. Also, to be fair, a lot of their struggles stem from movie studios wanting to squeeze them out. It's very easy to blame it all on the head honcho without knowing what's going on behind the scenes... TV networks and movie studios saw what happened to the music industry with Apple and they simply will not have it.
 
Sorry Netflix, I already downgraded my account to streaming only (it takes effect today) in the hopes that the content eventually improves. I've already seen some good signs since they're adding The Walking Dead, which I have not seen yet. I'm not switching back to a DVD membership now, it's too late.
 
Didn't matter to me one way or the other. I dropped streaming at the last price hike. I don't care what name is on my red envelopes as long as I continued to get the same service.
 
If they intended to sell off (or spin off) the dvd side of the business (which is the only reason that would make sense to split it and pick such a stupid name), they should have just sucked it up, went through with the splitting and changing the name, and sold it.

I wonder if they are planning to have the split mostly go ahead behind the scenes (except for keeping one account and syncing everything), and then have it fully happen once they sell it off?

On the other hand, if they were doing this and had no intentions of selling it, the whole thing was pretty moronic, idiotic and incompetent.
 
What a clusterfuck.

Spend all this time telling people how the split up would be good long term for the business, and then turn around and retract everything.

If it was good for the business, suck it up and go through with it. If it's not, why was it even proposed in the first place?
 
Who the heck is making all these bad decisions? Let's compare and contrast them to Amazon who is beloved by most. Netflix used to have the same type of customer satisfaction. Amazon has managed to make the right decisions (Prime, Amazon on Demand, Amazon Cloud, Kindle, etc.) and keep the good customer relations going. Netflix on the other hand, has completely gone of the tracks. A year or so ago, everyone I knew loved Netflix and they had all the positive customer good will they could ever want. Nowadays, by the day, they are losing it one customer at a time.

Pretty sad way to run a company into the ground. Now you know why CEO's (especially good ones) make the salaries they do.
 
very good move, i would have hated to manage everything between 2 sites, plus qwikster is a horrible name.. i'm also not happy about my new $20 bill for 1 BR and streaming, but i'm stuck with it for now as i dont have cable and thats our only source of movies/tv shows
 
I'm thinking of going back to Blockbuster Online. I just hope their selection has improved since last I had them. I'll end up paying less (don't have to pay extra for Blu-Ray), and I won't be renting from a company that wants to get rid of the one service I'm primarily interested in (disc rental).
 
Unbelievable. The absurdity of people who make it to CEO status is comical, and yet there are millions of decent, intelligent hardworking individuals who are unemployed because of clowns like this. Only in America....
 
Well, the Qwikster pothead at Twitter got to keep his tweeter account. And haven't got any money :(
 
It's amazing how such a successful company can be so ignorant to the wants/needs of their customers. Or, they know but just don't care - which typically marks the beginning of the end if they don't figure out that not caring doesn't work when you provide a service for sale.
 
Impulse said:
He co-founded Netflix, and he's on the MS & FB boards, so despite recent mistakes I'd gamble that the dude does have a clue. Also, to be fair, a lot of their struggles stem from movie studios wanting to squeeze them out. It's very easy to blame it all on the head honcho without knowing what's going on behind the scenes... TV networks and movie studios saw what happened to the music industry with Apple and they simply will not have it.
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I completely agree. Reed Hastings has been a great CEO. No doubt that he has fumbled recently, but we don't know the entire situation as to what is going on. I'm sure the publishing and distribution companies are wanting to try to kill Netflix so they can gain all of the money from streaming through their own services rather than through a company like Netflix.

I hope they can get it back together.
 
I see the stockholders finally found a gun big enough for Hastings to take notice it was pointed at his head.
 
wasteomind said:
Unbelievable. The absurdity of people who make it to CEO status is comical, and yet there are millions of decent, intelligent hardworking individuals who are unemployed because of clowns like this. Only in America....
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lol How did Hastings / Netflix cause the unemployment of any Americans? I guessed he helped bankrupt Blockbuster, but their outdated business model had more to do with that. If anything Netflix provided a stimulus to the postal service... He made it as CEO because he founded a highly successful company that disrupted one of the most greedy self serving industries in the country. The guy was in the Peace Corps for pete's sake...

He's hardly the type of CEO that's taken it's turn at HP lately only to leave 6 months later with a ridiculous bonus. Not saying he hasn't made mistakes, I canceled my sub after only three months because the price hike didn't make it as appealing for me personally... But a lot more than his role as CEO went into those decisions.
 
I hope they do proceed with the videogame rental service they mentioned adding. With their nationwide distribution infrastructure, they can put their foot directly on the throat of Gamefly.

The two biggest cons to Gamefly, from my personal experience, is the length of time to receive something that has shipped, and waiting for something in my queue period to ship. If Netflix has a better supply of what people want, then Gamefly could be in trouble.

Only plus for Gamefly would then be their used game sales.



But I am glad that Netflix has decided to stay with one website, makes the most sense in my opinion.
 
Netflix will be dead in a few years anyway. If even that long. All these new partnerships with TV providers that Microsoft just announced should be enough to make them shit their pants.
 
So derp, but at least you can give them credit for responding to the customer's feeling about the deal. Either that, or the stock needed the PR like you guys mentioned...
 
mETRo said:
Netflix will be dead in a few years anyway. If even that long. All these new partnerships with TV providers that Microsoft just announced should be enough to make them shit their pants.
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You just may have something there... I too am getting hints of this in my crystal ball.

:D
 
jusluv2play said:
I hope they do proceed with the videogame rental service they mentioned adding. With their nationwide distribution infrastructure, they can put their foot directly on the throat of Gamefly.

The two biggest cons to Gamefly, from my personal experience, is the length of time to receive something that has shipped, and waiting for something in my queue period to ship. If Netflix has a better supply of what people want, then Gamefly could be in trouble.

Only plus for Gamefly would then be their used game sales.



But I am glad that Netflix has decided to stay with one website, makes the most sense in my opinion.
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I didn't like gamefly for the same reasons. Plus I already had a subscription to Netflix so I was paying double. I really need a game rental service though. I typically only play singleplayer games... and with the focus on competitive multiplayer nowadays and only having 6-8 hour singleplayer campaigns I finish a game the same day I start playing it then don't touch it again for months to years. I'm wasting a lot of money that way. :(
 
ROCKETR said:
I completely agree. Reed Hastings has been a great CEO. .
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I don't know about that. Netflix has made a series of mistakes that Apple wouldn't have and didn't.

The first mistake and really it's probably the biggest was allowing MS to dictate it's media standard and even which consoles/platforms were to receive preference (XBOX360 vs PS3) for their streaming service. Netflix should be looking out for Netflix not Microsoft. Considering that MS is also offering streaming services I haven't a clue why they would do that.

You can't have leverage with the MPAA if you don't have enough users and since it's streaming service is still in it's infancy it would have been best not to play games with which devices would get the service and which would not. Apple has leverage with the music studios because every device they make is tied into iTunes. How many users is that? 297,000,000 How many Netflix users use the streaming service? Roughly 5,800,000

Since Netflix doesn't make devices the goal is to stick that service on as many devices as possible. Pfft I'd have that bitch on every damn OS I could find. From Blackberry devices to Symbian if the device could display a 24-bit color palette and had a screen, my shit would be all up in there.
 
aahhh. The ISP bandwidth caps are gonna kill em' anyways :(
 
The Board members probably jumped on his ass saying, "stop the bleeding dude".
 
Good to hear... I was thinking it wouldn't last after the backlash, so I held on waiting to see if the "quickster" thing would actually happen before canceling my account. I hated that idea, but I understand the need to raise prices. Nothing stays cheap... What I think they should consider is putting a commercial or two before their streaming content to help offset the cost from our pockets. I can deal with 1 or 2 15second commercials if it means I will get a much newer and better selection from their streaming content. I watch 90% of my tv programs via the web (abc,cbs,nbc, fox, etc...) anyway and they all have advertising as well as any movie you go out to see. It wouldn't be the end of the world if Netflix did it too, but ONLY at the beginning. I don't want to deal with commercials during the movie. This could be successfull enough to even lower our prices if Netflix does it right.
 
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