The Netflix Thread

[Irish]

Studio demands explain the changes to pricing and service plans, but not the creation of a separate business which doesn't interoperate with the original corp.

The only explanation I've seen touted around is about a potential selloff, but since every keyboard jock out there recognizes DVDs are a shit business, who is gonna buy Qwikster in 2, 3 years time? Nobody talks about that part.

I bet Jeff Bezos is happy as hell though. Hastings just dropped his guard and stuck his chin out.

[Spun Lepton]

All the whining about this by the users on The Consumerist is really starting to get on my nerves.

[number8]

Studio demands explain the changes to pricing and service plans, but not the creation of a separate business which doesn't interoperate with the original corp.

How does the quoted text not explain it?

STUDIO: Pay streaming royalty for every subscriber you have.

NETFLIX: That's not fair. Not all of our customers use streaming. How about we pay for every subscriber that uses the streaming service?

STUDIO: No! You're one company, so it's all the same! Pay for every customer.

NETFLIX: Well, fuck it, fine. We're now two companies. There.

[Irish]

gotta say I love the @Qwikster twitter account.

[Irish]

How does the quoted text not explain it?

Before the pricing/service change, anyone with a sub had access to IW. Aferwards, the site changed depending on your plan. DVD only never saw any hint of IW content and could not access it, and vice versa.

So at face value, that would be enough to satisfy studio demands. Studios strong-arming Netflix into a split company, forcing them to create a entirely new legal entity, is pure conjecture.

Mostly I don't believe it because people in these articles are talking about "the studios" as if they're a single entity, when they're not. They're also ignoring the deals Amazon, Apple, and Blockbuster cut with these same groups of people, making good with some serious limitations but without cutting off chunks of their own corporations.

[number8]

Those are pay-per-download sites, which are far easier to negotiate returns than and completely different from striking deals based on a flat fee subscription model. If there's another well-known streaming site that does what Netflix does, I don't know it.

[Ezee E]

I refuse to use RedBox. I'm not renting movies from the same place that people buy Big Gulps and Egg McMuffins.

I'm waiting for the Whole Foods Organically made vending machine box.

[Derek]

I'm currently using streaming only, and I figure its probably for the best seeing as I was tired of having to return the DVDs in the mail. Still this splitting of services probably means I'll never go back to DVDs in the mail at all.

Which might in turn result in me using RedBox and even having to crawl back to my old local video store even more, although I haven't begun doing that just yet.

So you're too lazy to put DVDs in your mailbox, but not too lazy to drive to Wal-Mart or your local video store to pick from a significantly smaller selection?

[MadMan]

So you're too lazy to put DVDs in your mailbox, but not too lazy to drive to Wal-Mart or your local video store to pick from a significantly smaller selection?

No, that's not it at all, and actually its the fact that I don't even like using a mailbox is the reason why (so far) I haven't been using RedBox or my local video store again. Learn to read, man.

[Spinal]

This is basically how I feel about RedBox:

[youtube]uLtlwAGZx6U[/youtube]

[Irish]

Those are pay-per-download sites, which are far easier to negotiate returns than and completely different from striking deals based on a flat fee subscription model. If there's another well-known streaming site that does what Netflix does, I don't know it.

The difference is in the size of the catalogue. Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus offer subscription deals which are the same on execution and similar in price to Netflix. That's today, right now. (You could argue that NFLX has a physical media business that the others don't have... except Amazon has a used market which is arguably more of an anathema to content producers than Netflix's DVDs).

Then there's Dish/Blockbuster and Apple, both of whom are long rumored to be developing their own competing services. (iCloud won't be just for file backups, and what happens if Dish buys Hulu?)

So why is this monolithic studio demanding Netflix split, while presumably negotiating freely with all its competitors?

I get the studios charging per customer. I get Netflix changing their account model in order to acquiesce to that demand and to save money. I don't get how that translates into cleaving their company in two, making user hostile moves, and diluting the brand they've built up over twelve years.

[MadMan]

My take on all this is that I'm going to enjoy Netflix as much as possible while I still can, and while its still it faintly resembles the website I originally signed up for back in 2009.

[Ezee E]

Wow, Netflix has lost over 1 million customers since the news of the price increase.

[Mara]

I assume you've all read The Oatmeal comic about the split? If not, you really should.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/netflix

[Dukefrukem]

I was just coming here to post that.

[Robby P]

Not getting the Redbox hate. Cheaper, faster and more convenient than any video store. But it's at Wal-Mart!

[Ezee E]

Not getting the Redbox hate. Cheaper, faster and more convenient than any video store. But it's at Wal-Mart!

Unlike Merlot, it's still the same movie.

Plus, at McDonald's, fairly sure they'll still have copies of Meek's Cutoff... But not copies of Cabin Fever 2.

[Derek]

Not getting the Redbox hate. Cheaper, faster and more convenient than any video store. But it's at Wal-Mart!

Video stores have a significantly larger selection and they're not in Wal-Marts, but otherwise they suck unless they're a specialty store. I think people are saying that compared to Netflx, Hulu, etc., Redbox sucks. It's the McDonald's of the video rental world, conveniently located within select McDonald's branches.

[Dukefrukem]

It's the McDonald's of the video rental world, conveniently located within select McDonald's branches.

And Wallmarts, and gas stations and practically every shopping center.

[number8]

And Wallmarts, and gas stations and practically every shopping center.

Just like McDonalds!

[Derek]

And Wallmarts, and gas stations and practically every shopping center.

It's certainly a reasonable option for people who don't watch any movies from before 2010. Most people on this site don't fit into this demographic.

[Dukefrukem]

It's certainly a reasonable option for people who don't watch any movies from before 2010. Most people on this site don't fit into this demographic.

I agree and this is why Netflix will always be the best option for me.

Just look at all the shit I need to watch!

I want those lists filled by 2020

[Dukefrukem]

Amazon to buy Netflix? I support this.

[Dukefrukem]

Dear Customer,

I have big news for Amazon Prime members - we've just signed a deal with FOX to add a broad selection of movies and TV shows to our unlimited instant streaming service later this fall. The new additions from the FOX library include 24, Arrested Development, The X-Files, Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and - available on digital video for the first time - The Wonder Years. We now have deals with CBS, NBCUniversal, Sony, and Warner Bros, and adding FOX will bring the total to more than 11,000 movies and TV shows available for unlimited instant streaming.

Since launching earlier this year, we have now doubled the number of titles available in Prime instant videos, and there's still more to come. Prime membership remains $79 a year, and of course features our unlimited free two-day shipping on millions of products. Prime is one of the best values anywhere.

Prime instant videos can be played on more than 300 HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and set-top boxes.

Amazon is dominating.

[Dukefrukem]

We should prob change the trhead title to "streaming services"? Unless you want me to make a 2nd thread for this? I <3 Amazon Prime