I really wish they would address the lack of many movies and TV shows for streaming. I'd love to just subscribe to Netflix instead of Qwikster, but the streaming catalogue is just not there right now.
Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
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Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh dear...where to start: * 37Signals * Salesforce * of the month club (you said profitable - not Fortune 500) * membership * Does Amazon Prime count? * Costco - you need to pay to be a member, whic his, by definition, a subscription business * Successful hosting providers - I myself use the great Bluehost.com Though you could argue that paying for and building a gym gives you exclusive right to a physical asset. Out…
I have no way of knowing whether 37signals is actually profitable or not, but perhaps Salesforce is a real example. You found ONE. Your gym membership does not count: Physical asset. Amazon Prime is not a business. And I guarantee you it is NOT profitable anyway. It's a marketing program. Hosting does not count: It's a physical asset. Costco is not a subscription biz. It's a retailer that uses membership as a marketi…
You said, subscription based businesses. I am not sure what physical assets have to do with anything. Even ignoring Netflix's physical DVD library, if you consider hosting a physical asset, then I think you'll also have to qualify Netflix as a "subscription service which provides automated hosting & licensing of select content for subscriber's convenience".
Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#73What an absolutely awful name "Qwikster". I'm still frowning in disgust.
I think 2003 called & they want Netflix to return their buzzword. Reminds me of two other failed businesses "Napster" & "Friendster"...
Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#74I wonder what Netflix will show for search results that are only available on Qwikster.
Hastings replied to that question in the Netflix blog post's comments: [1] Question: "If a film I search for on Netflix is not available for streaming, will the website still tell me if the DVD is available? Or must I search twice?" Reply: "ouch. You'd have to search the second place if we didn't have it in the first place." [1] http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-reflect...
That's pretty bad. You'd think they could integrate an API system that at least allowed for the two services to interact with each other.
Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#75"...the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated. So if you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or email address, you would need to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn’t show up on Netflix, and vice-versa." Wow. I had previously thought that their pricing change was forcing consumers to effectively choose between st…
My guess is that the logical split has to do with future contract negotiations. Netflix has no ties to DVD rentals, so maybe this aids them in the deals they are able to make.
As I understand it, most of the deals between Netflix and the studios are revenue sharing deals. So the studios have a vested interest in increasing whatever metrics they are basing the revenue sharing on. They could see streaming availability as hurting the DVDs 'sales.' Though this would apply industry-wide anyways, so I don't know if this would really put the streaming side of things in a better negotiation position.
Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#76Why is Netflix performing seppuku?
Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#77Qwikster is a terrible name, and this is a terrible move. Hastings is now in competition with that guy running HP to see who can destroy their company first. Maybe Ballmer will get in the game and spin off Windows/Office from Microsoft, and rebrand them "Facetown", while proclaiming Bing to be the future of the company. Unbelievable. Update: I predict Qwikster is dead and buried within 5 years, and someone else pushe…
>I predict Qwikster is dead and buried within 5 years
This is the direction the physical DVD side of Netflix's business was going anyway.
Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I strongly suspect it's related to negotiating royalties for streaming based on streaming subscriber numbers, not the combined numbers. That was the reason behind the original split in the services, so it's probably why they're actually splitting the accounts.
> That was the reason behind the original split in the services No. Not at all. The plans were split in preparation for the company split. This has been in planning for a long time.
And the company split isn't "related to negotiating royalties for streaming based on streaming subscriber numbers, not the combined numbers" as waterlesscloud indicated? The public explanation of better focus for each business is sensible, but I think there is a not insignificant impact to licensing that drove the decision as well.
Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#79The greatest opportunity for netflix is to become the global leader in streaming films. They've been slow to expand in this regard. I've been waiting for netflix to hit the UK for a long time. By dropping DVDs they avoid any expectation of a service that requires significant investment in infrastructure. This presumably also makes negotiations far simpler and faster. With a race to penetration in each new market this could be critical.
Re: Netflix Splits DVD And Streaming Businesses
#80It seems I'm in the minority who thinks this is an over the top reaction to Wall Street pressure. It was clear for a number of years now that Netflix saw streaming as the future. But cutting off the DVD business like that... it's extreme. A lot of the movies are not available for streaming. Yes, their streaming portfolio is probably still the best (and has excellent children's content, my son watches it every night)…
The attack surface for other companies has just doubled
If anything, that is an underestimate. I really can't understand what they are thinking. Since I am interested in both DVD and streaming, up to now I was completely locked into Netflix because of the integrated system - my "Instant" queue is just the subset of my DVD queue that is streamable.
If they break that link, and I derive no gain from being BOTH a Netflix-DVD and a Netflix-streaming customer, what is there to stop me switching to Amazon or other competing streaming service tomorrow? Absolutely nothing.
This is such a bad decision I actually can't even begin to understand how it made sense to the dude for the whole length of time it took him to write that announcement.
Edit: and another thing. Am I expected to believe that a technology company cannot figure out how to run two different business arms with a single customer-facing UI/website? This is something frigging clothing companies do every day.