NETFLIX / QWIKSTER Discussion - Page 3

 

I haven't looked at Blockbuster in years-- any idea if they're still editing films for content? If so, do they offer a choice of edited or unedited versions?
 

 

That article strikes me as short-sighted, unrealistic, and sort of arbitrary. It doesn't make a compelling enough argument for HBO being the sort of magic fix-all it's making it out to be, or for Netflix sinking all their resources into a deal with them, which would probably be to the detriment of other deals and improvements they could be making, In fact the other improvements mentioned in the article sound much more important to me than securing HBO content (as nice as that would be) but the author kind of brushes all that aside - worse yet he basically says yeah they need to do all that but also get HBO, as if they have a bottomless bank account to work with. That's about as useful and practical as an article saying that what Netflix needs to do is acquire the streaming rights to every movie and TV show ever made and then they'll be fine! Well duh, in a perfect world, but we definitely aren't living in one and it doesn't work like that.

Netflix Co-Founder and former CEO Mark Randolph weighs in:

 

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/09/26/netflix-didnt-screw-up/

 

Interesting stuff.

 

EDITED to correct the name of the article's author!

Edited by Cylon Baby - 9/27/11 at 11:48am

That article is not by Reed Hastings, who is actually still the current CEO of Netflix. It's also a lame argument by someone not even in the current mix.

 

Oops, sorry about that! Fixed!

 

Reed Hastings' current moves fixed a problem that didn't need to be fixed 5-10 years before it became an actual molehill of a problem. 

 

The analogy of the sales/rental split compared to the current split is the flimsiest of arguments.  The Netflix UI has for years been ever so easy to navigate and wasn't something that went over the heads of basic users.

 

"I want to see Movie X."

 

Movie X can be mailed to you by clicking the red button

-or-

Movie X can be played immediately by clicking the blue button because you are tech savvy enough to own a Blu-ray player or an all too common home gaming console which will allow you to do so.

 

Hell, even the Disc queue would AUTOMATICALLY put a dual format film into your Instant Queue.

 

People keep pointing to the biggest possibility behind all this being the fact that Hollywood wanted per person/per month money for ALL subscribers regardless of content delivery.  Netflix gave a million dollars to some guys for figuring out a better way to click on some stars and tell me what else I would like to watch.  Are you telling me that nowhere in the code for that fucking website is the ability to KNOW who the hell is and isn't using the streaming content, pull out those numbers, wipe your ass with a printout of it and slam it down on the negotiating table and tell Hollywood to go fuck themselves?

 

Jesus, someone on the boards pointed me a few months ago that can give me a Queue analysis LIKE I JUST SAID ABOVE!!!!

 

High speed internet service isn't reaching enough people to make this a smart decision and those who do have it lack the speed and bandwidth for picture and sound quality necessary to make the money spent on that fancy home theatre setup worth the effort.  Are those two fringes such a minority that they have no bearing on the decisions made by this business?

 

That article reads to me like damage control from someone whose stock options just went to hell in a hand basket.

Don't know about that--I haven't used the BB online stuff in forever either.  I'll let you know in a few weeks.  Supposedly this all starts on 10/1.  I don't remember ever receiving an "edited" disc from them, but I know I've rented (from the store) copies that were obviously BB-specific.  Plus, remember that Dish owns BB now, so I would guess that they're trying moreso to compete with Comcast, DirecTV, etc., and not Netflix.  So I would guess Dish is trying to give the user more of what they want, which is most likely not self-edited movies.

 

Hell, I'm looking forward to getting games more than anything else.  I'm also anxious to see how many discs you can have out at a time.
 

 

I have two separate accounts for Netflix's offerings and every time I log into my instant account I am greeted with the screen of recommended movies for each genre. But 9.5 times outta 10 those movies all say "unavailable" underneath.

This move on Netflix's part is understandable and would be smart in a few more years, but as of now, their streaming library is just too immature.

Well im currently on the 3 disc free trail with blockbuster.com Nothing is edited but at the end of the day the shipping takes too long so I won't be returning. discs take 3-4 days to get to me(and back) and it just isn't worth paying for. That b eing said their selection wasn't bad and while their library was't as big as Netflix they did get pretty much every blu-ray which Netflix does NOT. 

 

Signed on with the Blockbuster Pass this weekend.  It's funny--the screen looks like something from 2005 as far as the interface goes.  But there are indeed games included.  However, I only get the "one at a time" disc deal (but it's free).  And there is online viewing via dishonline.com and Blockbuster On Demand.com (but no app for iPhone yet).  I cleared my old BB queue and will start updating it with movies I have on Netflix, then probably cancel my disc-based Netflix (for now).  And leave streaming (for now).

 

Although--updated that stuff this weekend and am still waiting for them to ship my first DVD (I added like 6-7 movies for now).  Hmmm...

This says it all, couldn't embed.

 

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/Netflix-Apology/1359563

No Qwikster after all.

 

DVDs will be staying at netflix.com

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 our members, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get movies & TV shows.

Thank you.

 

GO ITARWEBZ!!!!!!

 

Stupid fuckers.

Look for them to be replacing this CEO soon, no?

Yes, this entire debacle has been painfully stupid from the get go, and anyone with a finger on even the faintest marketplace pulse would have known QWIKSTER was nothing less than an insult to the NETFLIX user base. To roll out that video where it's like "Apology! Our bad! Here's how we plan to make things better by making them worse" should be a capital offense for any chief executive officer. Netflix shareholders, it's time for a mutiny. Your captain is seriously unfit for command

PS I never even bothered to do anything to change my account. I just was going to let it slide till it became some billing issue and then I'd call up to complain. There was no way I was going to jump through the hoops of signing up for an entirely different service

Wow a company that fucking listened to it's customers? Holy shit!

"Flailing" is the word that comes to mind.

http://www.chud.com/69899/netflix-shutters-qwikster-before-it-even-starts/

While I will say that it was super inconvenient of the Netflix/Qwikster debacle to exist, it's incredible the amount of vitriol that arose because of it. Of course, this is the internet.

Yeah your right.................but it worked!

As someone who took the bold approach of "Let's see how this thing plays out" as opposed to losing my fucking mind when the split was announced, I greet this latest announcement with a hearty "Okay then".

Are we sure this isn't because Netflix couldn't secure the Qwikster Twitter account?

I half imagine Reed Hastings is sitting in his office wearing his grandmother's funeral garb listening to a ferret deciphering the company's next move...what's that? Vegetables? We're going to send Vegetables to people and what they don't eat they'll send back to us, and we resend it out to the next person? Genius! Thank you Mr. Rabies you're a good cat.

I JUST WANT MY FRIENDS BACK

How many times can a company shoot itself in the foot?  They're like the Charlie Sheen of movie rental companies.

This isn't shooting the foot. This is listening to your customers. Sure, it's been a mess up to this point, but I respect a company that admits its mistakes and acts accordingly.

 

I know it's the internet and people are gonna bitch either way, but I would rather have them own up and listen to/act on the complaints rather than just bowl ahead with their vision and build up more customer resentment.

Give them credit for acknowledging their mistakes (although QWIKSTER never even happened anyway, does it still count?). Anyway, I agree with the group that looks at this whole thing dispassionately. None of these things happening lately with NETFLIX have ever drove me to the point of considering cancelling my subscription. They has to do much worse to get me slightly annoyed.

 

Yeah, shows how fucked their public image is when capitulating and giving the customers what they wanted is still met with indignation.

My first DVD finally got sent out from Blockbuster.com.  Hopefully it arrives today (as my Netflix movies take about a day), and then I'll cancel my Netflix disc rental and just leave the streaming (which I rarely use actually).  The Qwikster thing...I wonder if someone is getting fired/demoted for that.

Depends on where you live. Most people it takes 2 to 3 days. It did for me when I did their free trail. It's also why I had to cancel.

 

Both this and HP's recent developments are quite funny and revealing of just how much flying by the seat of their pants major companies do.

We hardly ever watch the movie right away or scramble to get our next one, so I can deal with a 2-3 day delay, especially since it's free (for now).  And now with this, I can do in-store swaps, but the closest store to me is gone.  There's another one that's a bit out of the way, but still not too far.

 

Anyone know yet if they still plan on introducing video games, or has that been scrapped altogether?

 

 

They said they are open to the idea and are thinking about it

If they introduced it at no extra charge it would be fair but otherwise im uninterested. Blockbuster doesn't charge extra for blu-ray and games, why should Netflix?

Well Netflix is already charging extra for BLU, so I wouldn't be surprised if they rolled out a price increase for games (assuming they ever actually rent them). I got the feeling "plus games!" was thrown in with Qwikster in order to lessen the blow. Now that there is no Qwikster, they may feel like they don't need to bother

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/How-Netflix-Lost-800000-nytimes-2771345185.html?x=0

This is a moot point.  I want to see next years numbers you tricky fucks.

 

 

The first half of this I bet is pure and utter bullshit.  I bet the longer this plays out the price increase will be seen as a speed bump and the failed split as a brick wall.

 

 

The latter half keeps getting repeated ad nauseum in every single article since the split was announced.  That repetition is going to bite them in the ass when they do raise prices again.

 

 

 

Then Mr. Hastings needs to be ousted from his company for not knowing what was going on and for completely ignoring what may have gone on.

 

 

 

Because the rapid ascension of Netflix-ready Blu-ray players and set-top boxes had nothing to do with it at all.  Consumers were just twitching to drop DVD's.  When all this levels out I bet DVD gets a slight bump as the novelty of effortless streaming peters out.

 

 

Man Netflix is now the poster child for absolute worst PR policies ever. What makes it worse is that they worked hard to cultivate this image of a community that loves film, encourages interaction among their customers as well as customer to company, then in two major instances they metaphorically scream "FUCK YOU!" to all their customers.

 

It's hard to come back from that kind of (perceived) loss of trust, as the recent stock activity atests.

There is a way to do business and not to do business. Netflix didn't figure out how to negotiate this whole thing.

 

Strange because its been a champ for years.

Again, don't forget the THROTTLING issue, which they were sued over. It's why I first dumped NETFLIX in 2005. As I explained to my dad this afternoon, they have a long history of abusive practices that harm their consumers

 

Reed Hastings needs to be fired, and even that won't lessen my anger towards the company. Trying to force DVD consumers to cover the costs of people who only are interested in their shitty quality streams was a bridge too far. It showed they didn't respect film fans, and they sure didn't respect our intelligence when they pretended that streaming was a viable option when the vast vast majority of films cannot be streamed, much less streamed at DVD quality

Wait, when was this?

My opinion is that they upped the cost of DVD renting in order to keep streaming low, rather than keep the costs of both services born equally by all NETFLIX consumers

 

I must have missed that. I recall that that there were no changes in the cost to rent dvds by mail, and that they had to start charging for streaming across the board.

 

If one didn't like streaming, then why would they be upset to have to pay for something they didn't want to keep anyway?

 

 

There were no cost increases for DVD customers? If you wanted DVDs + Streaming, you suddenly had to spend nearly double what you'd been paying! They should have halved those costs, and never split the plans. Just increased rates by $4.50 or so

Yes, but I don't recall an increase in price for the dvd customers who just wanted dvds by mail. The only increase I recall was for those customers who were wanting both dvds and streaming together.

 

And again, if the streaming is so horrible and such a poor value, then why would those people complain about having to keep and now pay for what they don't want anyway?

Because suddenly the value of a Netflix account that was DVDs only would drop, because you couldn't also stream

 

Anyway, I have a very particular view of this. Keep in mind I'm one of the poor souls Netflix 'throttled' before they were caught, so I am always on the look out for new ways they're trying to attack my bank account

 

I want streaming, but I don't want it enough to pay EIGHT DOLLARS for it. I think the costs for the service should be split across the different plans

 

Anyway, that's my take. Feel free to disagree

Then don't pay it and quit complaining. Simple as that. You either see the value in the service or you don't.

 

I think Netflix was fair in the price increase. Streaming and securing the licenses for all that content doesn't come cheap, so I'm not sure why the dvd-only members who were getting it for free all along would suddenly feel gouged when Netflix at least gave them the option to choose between keeping it with an increase in price, or dropping it altogether.

 

The sense of entitlement these days is ridiculous.
 

 

Is this Satire? Commentary on the state of America? Please?

Netflix about to take another one on the chin.  Post Office closures will cause additional day or two for delivery.

 

I see more people dropping discs if they take more than a day to arrive.