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Netflix kills Qwikster

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Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#141

Post by macrael »

macrael wrote: post #99
uptown wrote: post #5

While this rights the ship, Netflix made the colossal mistake of rocking the recurring-billing boat. Smart businesses know that when you've got a customer setup for recurring monthly billing, there's a certain percentage of these customers who will continue to pay even though they're not actively using the service. Part of it is laziness of figuring out how to cancel. Another part is the thought that they may someday…

The most convincing explanation of their actions I read was essentially: 1. they made streaming a free add on to DVDs to get people using the service, which resulted in streaming becoming popular. 2. The media owners started to (or perhaps always had) cut their deals with Netflix on a per subscriber basis rather than per view. So Netflix was paying the networks for everyone who subscribed, including evyone who only w…

I found the article I summarized here: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/whats-really-behind-the-net...

I think it explains the facts in the simplest way.

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#142

Post by smackfu »

macrael wrote: post #112
fryguy wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they were paying a flat amount for an up to X million subscribers, not a per subscriber fee. Then they got close to the cap and needed to remove the people from the cap that weren't really using it, but the contract counted everyone that had access. It's pretty much the same thing though.

Where does that information come from? Is that a common way for such deals to be made?

Here is where I saw it:

"However, the contract Starz has with Sony has a subscriber cap with regard to Netflix. The home entertainment company now has more than 23.5 million subscribers, which exceeds the cap. Starz pulled the movies from Netflix so it wasn't in jeopardy of violating its deal with Sony."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/0...

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#143

Post by alttag »

kbutler wrote: post #67
smoyer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We switched to the streaming-only plan before our billing cycle and have been happy ... We weren't good at quickly watching the DVDs and returning them anyway plus we saved a buck a month. How did other HNers respond to the price hike? I would expect this group to be dominated by streamers anyway.

We looked at the value: not-deep-enough streaming catalog plus deep DVD catalog was a great service and a good value. Either one alone? Incomplete service. Both? Not enough value at the 2X price. We kept our subscription open until the day the price hike would hit us (How does Netflix get away with "the moment you cancel, your subscription ends, no refunds for partial months"?!?), then canceled completely. I tried to…

I cancelled with the same logic you used. I too tried to let them know, but there wasn't a good option in their exit survey, which was actually biased to mask my actual opinion. Instead, I posted to my blog. [1]

So far as no partial refunds, I know their agreement says that, but I saw a partial refund to my credit card within a week of canceling.

1: http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2011/09/dear-netflix/

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#144

Post by __david__ »

dpark wrote: post #42
matwood wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We weren't good at quickly watching the DVDs and returning them anyway plus we saved a buck a month. We were not either, so I would usually rip the DVDs when I got them and then watch it when we had time (also my only dvd player is a 360 and it's so loud...much better to stream over the ATV). After watching I would delete them...honest, I rarely watch a movie twice. Recently that became harder though because of incre…

How do you do your DVD ripping? I like to rip DVDs for my iPad, but was disappointed to learn that HandBrake won't do deCSS on Windows. I'm not keen on paying $50 for a 3rd-party decryptor just so I can watch movies I own on the bus.

I use Handbrake for Linux with the "High Profile" and the quality bumped a little because with the default quality I could still see artifacts on my TV. Actually I use a little script that I wrote that wraps Handbrake--it collects metadata from the net and also makes ripping TV shows pleasant.

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#145

Post by ams6110 »

brianbreslin wrote: post #78
dpark wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution to that seems (to me) to be to charge, e.g., $50/month flat, and pay the content owners based on usage. So if you don't watch HGTV, they don't get your money. This would allow access to all the programming without requiring that you pay for what you don't use.

@derekprior is correct, ESPN runs like $2.85/month vs USA Network which is like $.60/month. (this is what comcast pays them to broadcast it to you).

I'd gladly pay multiples of that price for the ESPNs, if I could buy them a-la-carte.

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#146

Post by chc »

mathattack wrote: post #80
yalogin wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It did reverse its decision but it did a lot of damage in the few weeks. First it kind of jolted people into rethinking their DVD subscription and more importantly gave people a reason to look at their competition in streaming. Amazon delivered the killer blow in my opinion. Their kindle bundled with media made Netflix reconsider quickly since now many people will see they are getting a better deal with Amazon even i…

If you are getting mocked by the Onion - then yes indeed, there was some damage. :-) http://www.theonion.com/articles/netflix-switches-over-to-co...

That's from February. Nothing to do with recent events.

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#147

Post by ams6110 »

So just because they are ditching the Qwikster branding and keeping both DVDs and streaming under one umbrella website, do we know that they are not still spinning off the DVD business as an affiliated but largely separate business operation? Seems to me they could achieve most of their perceived advantages of splitting up, while keeping netflix.com as a common storefront portal.

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#148

Post by sbov »

daimyoyo wrote: post #115
ck2 wrote: post #13

Wouldn't market questionnaire testing of just 100 people saved them this expensive juggling act? Anyway, I fear streaming price increases next year for sure as all the media outlets start to gouge netflix and they pass it on. Best thing netflix can do is make sure consumers know which distributors are purposely giving them horrible contracts and that it's not netflix's fault.

100 customers is not remotely close to a large enough sample size to glean anything worth the hassle to do the test. 100,000 would be better, but then you're spending a huge amount of money for results that might add nothing to your research. The whole "faster horse" theory applies here.

I don't see how "faster horse" theory applies to this experiment. The whole point of the faster horse theory is to look beyond your customer's assumptions to give them what they really want. Netflix wasn't looking to give their customers what they wanted, they were looking to inconvenience customers based upon internal logistics.

In many ways they were violating the faster horse theory: asking us if we wanted better streaming service or better dvd service. They were focused on technical details (do you want a horse or car) rather than the bigger picture (better travel - I don't care if it's by car or horse or teleportation).

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#149

Post by elq »

smackfu wrote: post #142
macrael wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does that information come from? Is that a common way for such deals to be made?

Here is where I saw it: "However, the contract Starz has with Sony has a subscriber cap with regard to Netflix. The home entertainment company now has more than 23.5 million subscribers, which exceeds the cap. Starz pulled the movies from Netflix so it wasn't in jeopardy of violating its deal with Sony." http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/0...

Please note that it was Starz who had a contract with sony that had subscriber count as a term in the contract, not netflix.

Re: Netflix kills Qwikster

#150

Post by kbutler »

gallamine wrote: post #87
kbutler wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We looked at the value: not-deep-enough streaming catalog plus deep DVD catalog was a great service and a good value. Either one alone? Incomplete service. Both? Not enough value at the 2X price. We kept our subscription open until the day the price hike would hit us (How does Netflix get away with "the moment you cancel, your subscription ends, no refunds for partial months"?!?), then canceled completely. I tried to…

Isn't "Not enough value at the 2X price." a bit hyperbolic? Most people would say a 60% cut is "around 50%". I'm not trying to criticize you, but there seems to be a systemic overreaction that I can't quite figure out.

It's not hyperbole, it's historical prices & rounding.

I was on a $4.99 1-DVD at a time plan. Then I was on an $8.99/month unlimited streaming plus 1 DVD (yeah, unlimited streaming is worth the extra $4).

Nov 2010 it up $1/month. Then this year it underwent mitosis , becoming two $8/month plans.

Yes, $16 is less than 2 * $9, but the process feels like a 2X increase in under a year.

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