Netflix is spinning off its DVD business into a new company

Lol. I can't take your question seriously.
Anyways, why rent when you can torrent?

 

They just shot themselves in the face. Why the hell would you jerk customer chains with the price splitting in advance of splitting up the services? On the heels of the industry bending you (and therefore your customers) over by delaying new movie releases a month and losing, not gaining, worthwhile content for streaming?

Netflix is going to die a quick death if their brand is hitched to a streaming service that offers amusing box office bombs (Howard the Duck), intentionally unintentional funny cheap movies (Hobo with a Shotgun), and cancelled TV shows of varying quality. They're right at the very edge of the word "novelty"

I like Netflix (discs) for watching TV series with the wife. I'm not paying $40 for a season I won't rewatch, renting is a hassle with multiple discs. Someone offers streaming service for the top tier, active shows (Tru Blood, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, etc) - I'll pay good money for that. Netflix streaming isn't coming close. It's nice to watch a few episodes of South Park or maybe see if Friday Night Lights was decent....but after that, you're sifting through nostalgia stuff like A-Team and Airwolf.

Shame to see this happen. Netflix is on a short leash with me - demonstrate, pronto, that the standalone streaming is going to up its game in a huge way, or you're gone. Hulu's content is weak too, but it's better than yours.

 

DVD side of Netflix is being beat up by the rapid expansion of Redbox and Blockbuster Express kiosks. A year ago, I had no reasonable access to a Redbox. As of a month ago, I now have access to 3 Redboxes and 1 Blockbuster kiosk, with more to come.
And its really not so much Redbox/Blockbuster. Hollywood is just not producing quality movies. You might get 3 decent new releases a month. Why pay $8.00 a month when I can get them for $1 at the kiosk a mile away?

 

Netflix does have Dexter, Breaking Bad, and Sons of Anarchy on streaming. It is just all a season behind.

 

Just read the email from their CEO.

Sounds like he hit the panic button a while ago.

Now he's digging his company's grave.

Google deliver us.

 

They don't have Dexter any more, it's been disc only for a couple of months.

 

Did not know, thanks. Well... that is a shame.

 

Has anybody noticed the streaming quality in HD switching to SD throughout a movie?

This doesn't happen on any other streaming site but Netflix. It has to be a Netflix cost saving move right?

 

I was fine with the price increase. Could live with that. Although the lack of communication was pretty dumb.

This is a nail for me though. I like streaming, but the content and quality is just not there yet. I do use it occasionally but I sure as hell am not gonna go through the hassle of keeping two separate accounts and ques up to date when it was perfectly fine bundled together.

DVD may die off eventually, but I think we're still a long way off from that. And in any case, Netflix could have kept them together and just phase the DVD aspect out over time.

And I really love how in the email he apologizes for the lack of communication than bluntly says they're splitting the service up. They obviously didn't learn anything.

Probably just back to mail-in dvd for me until streaming becomes more viable.

 

I understand needing to separate the business entities, but do not understand why it has to be so blatantly obvious to the customer.

Streaming and DVD queues are already separate - don't really understand why they're completely splitting them out.

 

I'm fine with it. Have three DVDs along with streaming and can't complain. It's cheaper then buying movies and along with streaming TV on my computer cheaper than cable. People just like to b**** about everything. Streaming isn't that great but I use http://instantwatcher.com/ and this helps out a lot with movies that aren't suggested. The only complaint I've ever had with Netflix is that they took Romper Stomper off their list of DVDs. Sons of b****es. That's a great movie.

 

Because the DVD business will eventually fail, and they don't want it bringing the profits of their streaming business down with it.

DD

 

It seems like a smart enough move. If they view them as two separate entities, they should put their eggs in the streaming basket. That's where the future of distributed content is going, but I'm still not convinced they will be the dominant player in ten years time. They have a hell of a foothold because they got in early, but in time I see being able to get content from a number of providers or direct from the production companies.

I moved to streaming only with Netflix because we never watched the lone DVD they sent us. I finally returned it the other day after it had collected dust for three months. I pretty much use streaming for Nick Jr. programs for the kids, but every now and then I watch something for myself. I get annoyed when I search for a program find it, go to stream it, and discover it wasn't available for streaming. It'll be nice to only get search results that are available for streaming.

However, as soon as Amazon offers Nick Jr programming on a streaming basis, I'll drop Netflix and pick up a Prime membership.

 

Netflix stream catalog sucks. If they are spinning it off and making it into it own brand they better step up their catalog game to warrant the price hike.

Netflix IMO will probably cost 40 bucks per month before it's catalog becomes worthwhile.

 

they just got breaking bad

 

That alone is reason enough to have streaming.

 

Maybe (probably) true, but contradicts what their CEO specifically says - which is DVD is still a very viable business and it will be a long time before it fails.

It may fail, but I happen to think it will be a while. Take redbox, which went completely brick and mortars and has been a huge success. DVD will die, but it will be a long, slow death. there are still way too many people that lag behind.

the question is did the then "kill a cash cow" so to speak. i think to a certain extent he has. he's made it so confusing and difficult for customers, and eliminated the one competitive advantage of the company - the joint streaming and DVD - that it's becoming increasingly difficult to stay a customer, imo.

Like others, I'm not entirely sure why he had to decouple the businesses from the user perspective.... at least certainly not at this time. One can only assume he's preparing one business or the other for monetization through sale. that said, seems like this move whacks the potential sale value of either business, perhaps even more so if performance of either business deteriorates, which it seems it might based on the reactions in this thread.... and the stock market, which has Netflix down over 7%.

 

I'm with DaDakota on this.

The physical disk industry will die off. They are smart to cut it while it's profitable and while they can make money off it (I guess I'm assuming there will be a sale in the near term)

It sucks (for them) that they didn't pair this with the price increase and have to deal with multiple PR hits.

Now they can focus completely on the streaming business. Improve the content and delivery and optimize the pricing. I think they'll be ok

 

I get that, but why couldn't they keep the queues and other stuff together. It's gonna be annoying logging onto two different sites with different personal profiles and ratings. They should do something to aggregate them.

Anyways I cancelled the streaming when they came out with the 2-tier pricing because the library just isnt that good

 

I wonder if their numbers show very low returns on the people that have both streaming and DVD plans. I know that my blu ray disc sits on the counter for weeks before we bother to watch it. They may be hoping that so many people treat the two plans seperately anyway so it won't be too much of an inconvenience for most of their customers.

Certainly back when they had to raise prices everyone (who was staying) was acting as though they were going to drop one or the other anyway.