After one of the biggest PR blunders since New Coke, Netflix won’t be splitting their brand in two, after all:
Abandoning a break-up plan it announced last month, Netflix said Monday morning that it had decided to keep its DVD-by-mail and online streaming services together under one name and one Web site.
The company admitted that it had moved too fast when it tried to spin-off the old-fashioned DVD service into a new company called Qwikster.
“We underestimated the appeal of the single Web site and a single service,” Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, said in a telephone interview. He quickly added: “We greatly underestimated it.”
Mr. Swasey said that the Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings declined an interview request. But in a statement, Mr. Hastings said, “Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that. There is a difference between moving quickly — which Netflix has done very well for years — and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.”
Mr. Swasey declined to comment on any involvement by the Netflix board in the decision to keep the two services together. Initial reaction to the Netflix announcement was largely positive, and the company’s stock rose about 6 percent in early trading.
There’s still a question of whether the whole model of mailing people DVDs is sustainable in the long term (I probably think it isn’t), but the combination of some sort of physical product combined with whatever’s available streaming seems to make the most sense, so splitting the two products was bound to fail. However, until the streaming version has the actual movies you’re looking for, instead of a selection of films that might do instead since you’re desperate and trying to entertain two children who won’t sit still for five minutes unless they’re constantly entertained (just as an example), splitting up the operation clearly isn’t going to fly.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2011.
What I want to know is if they are still planning to bring in video games. They planned to with Qwickster, but no mention of it now.
I agree. I’m not able to “stream” at the present time, so I’ve gone for the DVD only option. Frankly, at the present time, the selection of DVDs is far superior to that available for streaming, so that’s another reason for maintaining the DVD option.
On the other hand, I suspect that the end of the mailed DVD is approaching, much faster than I would like, but it’s coming.
Not calling people stupid today, Dan? I guess that’s just what we get when you deal with Christians…….
@Tired of Dan: Actually, I make an effort to not call people stupid. The terrible ideas people have? That’s a different story.
Gotta love you Dan. Caused quite a stir yesterday. Here’s to free speech and whatever the hell anyone wants to say about anything.
@ Dan: Actually no matter how you parse it, you’re attack on Christianity was incredibly offensive.
SToD: It might help if you learn the difference between attacking something some Christians do and attacking Christianity itself.
HAHA, you come to Dan’s articles, which you apparently don’t like, because you don’t like that he called someone stupid (even though he apparently didn’t, just described someone’s idea as terrible), AND have the user name Tired of Dan? Hmmm, I think there is a word for people like you: troll. Internet troll, to be specific. And now you are “Still Tired of Dan?”
Yep….VERY