Opinion: Is Netflix Now Set Up For Failure?

[Darkerson]

And actually, rabidface, more and more companies are extending the delays on their stuff they put on Hulu, so it, IMO, makes it worth less and less.

 

[tmshdw]

Netflix streaming & DVD service was a differentiator in the market place.
Now that they are about to spin off DVD by mail rentals I am now looking at Amazon streaming and others. Netflix is now just another fish out there with no unique value proposition. I’ve been a day-one customer of Netflix so sad to see this happen.

 

[azcoyote]

Cancelled my DVD service. Kept streaming only for my kids.
Qwikster is the worst name ever. Service is now crap.
The moment I have an alternative I like, I am gone from NetFlix too.
And I LOVED NetFlix until this all happened.

 

[captaincharisma]

[citation][nom]jacobdrj[/nom]They have it: Its called a 'bluray Quickster subscription'...Seriously? You are streaming content online... Get an IPTV service if this is really an issue for you... This from the guy that was happy to see HDDVD die because of it's inferior capacity and picture clarity to Bluray...[/citation]

yea good luck getting good video quality from IPTV. nothing like watching a move at 720P that is compressed to hell. FAIL

 

[keczapifrytki]

I watched the video, what a crock of shit, "over time both dvd and streaming will be much better..." Yeah right, how does that make sense? I have made my decision, I am going to Blockbuster for mail DVDs and as soon as I see someone else provide ad-free, subscription based, streaming service I am switching.

 

[delbrugge]

just pirate lol

 

[gmarsack]

I'M THE REAL NAPSTER..

For some reason, when I first heard of the new branding for DVD's I thought, Napster.. then I thought torrent, then I downloaded a ton of movies... Lets hope other Netflix customers (I'm one of them) doesn't do the same. I'm just about through with Netflix.

 

[jacobdrj]

[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]yea good luck getting good video quality from IPTV. nothing like watching a move at 720P that is compressed to hell. FAIL[/citation]
That was sort of my point... You are asking a LOT from current internet infrastructure. If you want maximum quality, go bluray. People who use netflix don't care if their content is 1080p, or SD. They want content. Netflix is providing less content for more money now. If they maintained their content, or improved their content, maybe this wouldn't be such a huge deal...

I think there is also a cultural issue with Netflix corporate. There are very few long term employees there. They may not have the diplomatic talent to negotiate with the content providers anymore...

And yes, they should have expanded to some kind of content creation of their own, like aspiring YouTube'ers or something to expand their market...

 

[knellie22]

I just don't understand why they didn't just name one Netflix Streaming and one Netflix Rentals, and set them up as two companies with an agreement in place to use the same website, billing info, queues and ratings system, so that it's basically the same and users who want both services aren't screwed by having to maintain two different website accounts, bills, ratings and queues.

 

[i7Rocks]

[citation][nom]ThisIsMe[/nom]First off I'll start with this. I'm sick and tired of reading all of these rants from pissed off, upset article writers who might as well be bloggers by allowing them selves to publish things like this. Just because they do not like the change to the pricing model. Seriously, just because you can complain and whine to your entire site visiter base does not mean you should. Get over yourself already.Second, I would like to clear up a few misunderstandings that seem too vast of a concept for some to grasp properly. So, in the past they charged about $8 for the streaming service. If you wanted to also order DVD's you would need to pay and additional $2 to gain that privilege. So then, let's sum this up. You just want to stream? Pay ~$8. You want to stream and rent DVD's? You pay ~$10.But wait, what if I only want to get the DVD's? Pay~$10.Wait... what?Yep that's how it worked. So then, on to the present times. After a lot of research and study and comparing notes, they discovered there were fewer and fewer people wanting to stream and rent movies. At the same time there were fewer people wanting to pay for streaming when they only wanted to rent the DVD's. Also, there were a few hiccups with liscensing and some boycotting from puplishers because they seem to not like streaming services very much because they have trouble understandng a virtual model vs. a simple buy a DVD and we make "x" amount of $ from it. So, to make there system better and remove the stigma affecting the publishers, they will separate the business models into two. From streaming with an addon rental feature, to a streaming service and a new separate rental service.So if you want to stream, it costs about $8. If you want to rent it costs about $8. Who is losing? Oh the few left, according to netflicks study's and usage data, that want to both stream and rent DVD's. In which case it will cost you another ~$6 a month.Seriously, if you don't like it then cut back on your cell phone bill a bit that I'm sure it costing you much more than it should because you had to have those extras that you barely use. Better yet, cancel the HBO or Showtime or Stars services which cost just as much or more each!Anyways, stop crying to us because you are upset. They are gunna do this because they have the data that says it's a good idea. You keep this up and you'll just scare everyone away and then there will be no Netflix and more people out of work.Oh, and hulu+ sucks. It's not like the hulu on the net where they have a bunch of stuff with adds. It has waaayyyyyy fewer options. It's as bad as Netflix and worse cuz in some cases you have to see adds even on the + pay service.[/citation]

my price went up %60 and I dont want to login to 2 different sites to manage my movies so I cancelled. People should voice their opinions anyone trying to stop that should move back to russia. I would of continued paying the $19 a month for a service i hardly used just because it was such a good deal, this move forced my hand, and from the looks of things I am by far not the only one. redbox and bitorrent FTW!

 

[hoof_hearted]

I get sick of the whole mentality of Holywood. Most actors and actresses think that they have special air around them and genrally don't even want to asscoiate with regular people. My daughter even did a part time job as an extra for a low budget movie where they fed them as part of their "payment". They had separate tables for cast-and-crew and then the extras. The cast-and-crew table was fancy catered food with linen table-cloth. The extras table had a couple of buffet style items: beans-and-rice and darkmeat chicken. These people in the film industry are hihghly greedy and think that we need to be enslaved to them and give them our hard-earned money which they tend to blow through loads of. I am getting to the point where doing things like camping, going outside, going to the gym, reading, etc is worth more of my time than these jackass's products. I used to think pirating was payback for these fools. Hell, I say ignore their asses.

 

[king smp]

I got fed up with DVDs when my daughter wanted High School Musical 3
This is a movie that played on Disney
They added some scenes and extras
And charged 29.99 at Kmart
I didnt realize how much and promised my daughter the DVD
So when I got there I bought it
so not to disappoint here (Bday gift)
30 dollars for a movie they showed on TV!!!

I understand they need to make a profit
but are you kidding me

Maybe if Hollywood would release DVDs for $10 with no extra content
at the time the movie came out
then people would buy that instead of the bootleg copy from the local Pirate
They would get a good quality copy
and Hollywood would get a sale they would have lost
Face it
Certain movies I will go to the theater to see
whether I have a bootleg copy or not
I want the movie theater experience
and other movies I will never go to the theater to see
doesnt matter if I have a copy
I still wouldnt go and pay to see it
So why not just release a reasonably price copy($10) at the time of movie release
No BS extras
How many people really watch the extras seriously
This way Hollywood could regain the customers lost to bootleggers and bittorrents
I would rather have a quality copy for $10 then some handheld camcorder version
that I might get busted for

(BTW two Comcast Copyright Infringement notices later I no longer torrent instead
I record Netflix, Xfinity TV, TV tuner and download Youtube videos for my media content
I even have a freeware program that rips the MP3 tracks off of Youtube plus if I need a new release I just Redbox and rip the DVD that night-costs me a buck)

 

[gallidorn]

Way to go Netflix, you have officially proven that you can kill a good thing faster than Charlie Sheen!!!

Netflix does not care about it's customers. History will repeat itself, because they are destined to go down in flames like Blockbuster did.

If you get too greedy and mistreat your customers... you no longer have a successful business!

 

[FlyPonix]

This was a good move for Netflix. DVD's are a dying breed. Who wants to wait for a DVD in the mail when they can pay 1 dollar at the local Redbox.

Netflix is a great streaming service. They have tons of stuff to watch. and personally I'm glad i won't have to have the DVD queue mixed in with my streaming stuff.

 

[computertech82]

Sad so many just cannot comprehend this simple move. NEWS FLASH, IT COST A CRAP LOAD OF MONEY TO STREAM....DUH. More and more are ONLY streaming=LOSS in PROFIT. In order to STAY IN BUSINESS, they had to change it.
Now dividing business into 2 companies make sense. The cost/expense/profit can be marked for each company. Much easier to change structure for maximum profit. dvd side allow hollywood to be happy. Streaming gets old, b rated, or not-so-good movies, and a few that hollywood doesn't care to try to make more money from. Everyone is happy (not so much for customers). But that's capitalism.
It was bound to change, more and more going for streaming=less profit. Try getting movies you can STREAM.....SURPRISE....it's really $2+ per movie typically. Pretty close to what netflix dvds cost (about $2 per movie average). I wouldn't be too surprise if netflix will offer streaming A newer movie for a price (like $2 for one movie). A movie rental company will always try to maximize profit, satisfy hollywood, and cut cost.

 

[goodguy713]

[citation][nom]darkerson[/nom]I never liked Hulu, because even if you pay, you are still force fed ads, which at least you dont have to deal with on Netflix.[/citation]
true but they have more content .. its give an take.. i love that about netflix too.. but they need to make more of there content available .. that what they currently have up

 

[eddieroolz]

I've never used Netflix, but the constant juggling of services isn't going to help the company one bit.

 

[someoneelse]

[citation][nom]feeddagoat[/nom]The last paragraph pretty much sums it up. If hollywood pushes too hard it will just increase Piracy and both will lose.Over here Love film needs something like this tbh. The DVD rental is pointless and a waste of money IMO but the streaming charges £2 per film ontop of monthly fee and doesn't have a lot of titles available. I would happily pay full for streaming only if they actually had the business model in place.[/citation]

sorry bro I totally disagree with you on Lovefilm. Firstly there are a fair few streaming "watch free with package" movies. However a lot of titles still aren't avaiable on streaming whilst being available on dvd and blue ray ( presummably some studios won't agree to streaming media ) thirdly dvds let alone blu rays have better image quality than the streaming I've seen. nothing like big square blocks to drag the movie experience down. fourthly british broadband infa structure can't cope at peak time so most people end up with buffering and having to refresh the page with really ruins the movie experience. at least with tv adds I can fast forward though them buffering you just have to wait it out.
I very much see the dvds and blu-rays as the main thing and the streaming as something I've gotten free and can be intersting but given the choice I would choose Blu-ray first then dvd then either streaming or just from tele. Once we have an interent that can stream 1080p seamlessly then I'll start buying individual streamed movies but until then it's postal rental for me.

I personnally think they only offer the streaming stuff ( and include it with the package free ) because they are building the technical knowhow for a streaming-only service once it is technically feasable and desrable in the UK. Remmeber most people have slow broadband ( esp in evening) no internet enabled tv or way of connecting their laptop or computer to their television. only recent video cards have sound over hdmi and most people don't want their computer in their living room. you may be an exception and you may be ahead of the crowd but for most people bluray by post is perfect