What Netflix Could Have Said This Week • Hacker News Board

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#111

Post by ericd » Wed, Sep 21, 2011, 6:17 AM UTC

joeguilmette wrote: post #61

phil wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't know that yet! I'm quite interested to see how they handle user data in the split -- will each company get a copy? Will the Netflix side maintain a complete database of movies, even if it can't stream them, so that you can continue to rate freely and get recommendations? There are some thorny user experience problems here for sure, but they are not unsolvable.

they are clearly not unsolvable, and in my view they aren't even thorny UX problems. they are clear cut. the issue is that Netflix thus far has done zero to try to make them better and has, ever step of the way, created these issues when a simple, customer friendly workaround seems apparent. what to do about ratings? make the two sites interoperable. hell, create an API for Netflix ratings. what to do about the two Q…

I think the problem with that idea is that they're likely preparing to sell off the whole DVD business in order to get the studios to stop insisting on Netflix paying streaming licensing royalties on EVERY subscriber rather than just the ones that subscribe to streaming. The problem with that thinking is that Netflix then loses the leverage that being able to say that they'll just offer a disc offers them.

I'm worried that the studios are like the barbarians at the gates of the Roman/Netflix empire, and that the dark ages and feudalism are looming. Hopefully we won't have years of crappy legit setup vs. a much better illegal option before another unifier like Netflix rises.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#112

Post by morrow » Wed, Sep 21, 2011, 8:52 AM UTC

jmilloy wrote: post #85

A DVD-by-mail queue makes sense to me. What does "queue" mean in a streaming service, especially one where availability is frequently changing? In fact, DVD-by-mail and streaming services require and invite dramatically different management by the user. I don't want a unified queue, because I don't want a queue for my streaming service. I can think of many ways in which I would want integration between my activity in…

I think for a lot of people, myself included, a queue is simply a list of movies I'd like to see, in roughly the order I'd like to see them. Choosing a delivery method for the movie is a secondary thought, that right now is dead simple to do -- given availability information for the movie for each queue type, simply click the button for the available queue that best suits your needs. You also have the ability to see and play movies that become available to stream while sitting in your DVD queue, and can move a movie from your instant queue to DVD if you'd like. The two services blend well enough together to form a layer of abstraction, letting you use Netflix as a unified movie-finding-and-watching platform instead of just as a "DVD delivery service" or "Movie streaming service".

I believe that DVD will eventually die and streaming will be the primary way to watch movies, but the streaming selection just isn't there right now, and splitting the company like this forces customers to deal so heavily and directly with delivery methods that it dissolves that abstraction layer that made Netflix so valuable in the first place. They now have to sell potential future (and unhappy existing) subscribers on 2 new separate products: a "DVD delivery service" and a "movie streaming service", neither of which really measure up the the way the combined system did, and for the same price!

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#113

Post by nollidge » Wed, Sep 21, 2011, 3:02 PM UTC

pyoung wrote: post #51

ctdonath wrote: post #27

Unified queue. Regardless of media, business structure, delivery mechanism, company name, etc. methinks what all customers want is a single place to choose & queue content, filtered by whatever options they desire, delivered on whatever medium is available and they pay for via a spectrum of contracts (from unlimited-per-month to single order). Just make sure it's all on one queue. If multi-queue, then only because on…

My best guess as to why they are splitting the queues is due to the availability issues on the streaming side affecting customer 'morale', so to speak. i.e. when a streaming-only customer searches for a title, and then finds that it is only available on DVD, their perception of the service is diminished. I think the end goal of this move is to kill off or sell the DVD portion of the service entirely, so by splitting…

> when a streaming-only customer searches for a title, and then finds that it is only available on DVD

So now, they'll find... it's not available at all. How does that any better for customer morale?

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#114

Post by pyoung » Wed, Sep 21, 2011, 7:29 PM UTC

nollidge wrote: post #113

pyoung wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My best guess as to why they are splitting the queues is due to the availability issues on the streaming side affecting customer 'morale', so to speak. i.e. when a streaming-only customer searches for a title, and then finds that it is only available on DVD, their perception of the service is diminished. I think the end goal of this move is to kill off or sell the DVD portion of the service entirely, so by splitting…

> when a streaming-only customer searches for a title, and then finds that it is only available on DVD So now, they'll find... it's not available at all. How does that any better for customer morale?

I am getting the feeling that Netflix's customer base doesn't understand why some titles are available on streaming vs DVD only (this is based on random comment reading). It is a very subtle difference, but it comes down to 'Netflix doesn't have the title' vs 'Netflix has the title but they won't let me stream it'.

Admittedly, the much bigger motive is that they want to get rid of their dvd-by-mail business.