Netflix Blunders Again

[hansolo77]

Ok, so some of you may remember a few threads ago about my rant on my BluRay player. Well this sorta ties in with that.

So has everybody heard about the new Netflix drama going on right now? Back in July, Netflix restructured their billing plans to allow users to have just streaming, just dvd's, or both. Originally, you got streaming as an added free bonus with 3+ dvd's (which I was using). The new structure now charges EXTRA for streaming, while also increasing the flat rate for dvd's by mail. If you were getting just 1 disk and streaming, it was a 60% price increase from $10 to $16 a month. In my case, it was only about $2 bucks more because of the 3 dvd's by mail I was getting. Regardless, Netflix customers were furious about this, and a LOT of them dropped the service. So what a surprise to Netflix when they discovered their stocks dropped something like 20% in value since then. Seeing this drama unfolding, the company providing the most online streaming content to Netflix (90%) is now leaving Netflix (Sony/Starz). I'm willing to bet, most things you watch on Netflix start with a Starz intro. Well, here in the next few weeks, those contents will be gone. This is crippling Netflix. Now the latest news; Netflix will reorganize their company. Netflix will be the primary company, supplying the streaming service, and a new subsidiary company "Qwikster" will be created to provide the DVD-by-Mail service. This will be presented to the customers in 2 separate bills. Most likely (although not announced yet) there will be yet another price increase to the customers. Netflix is claiming that they had this splitup in plans back in July, thus the reason for the price change then. A lot of people who stuck with their service don't believe it, and think this is just a lame excuse/lie to cover their screwup. Personally, I don't really care one way or the other, as long as the prices stay the same. As I said, $2 is livable for me, but if they go and start price hiking their users again, I'll probably drop them completely.

So what do you guys think? Is it really worth staying with Netflix now? I mean, very soon we'll have litterally NO streaming content available, and can almost garauntee a price increase for it.

Latest news link: http://money.msn.com/market-news/post.aspx?post=f42eb852-d1c0-49c6-bf50-e9597905aa87

[Kustom Kid]

The Starz media will end in February. As far as price hikes, in the email sent out this morning, he stated they were done with price hikes for the time being. I really like Netflix, and so far the last two announcements haven't changed how much I pay, or how I feel about the service I receive. I'm their model customer. I give them $8/mo and stream to my 4 devices and call it good. There is enough content available where I'm not wanting for anything. It's way better than cable for my family at the moment. That being said, once February rolls around, and the Starz content disappears we might have to switch to Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, or another service.

[Adultery]

I'm a faithful netflix user too. At first I thought about dropping the streaming service. Then I realized it was a fair price, and I can already stream to my cell phone. I can't be too mad at them.

The email was pathetic though. I laughed all the way through. But it ready didn't make a huge impact on our bill.

[hansolo77]

Yeah I just got the email today. Saw the part about them not going to changes the prices again; that's all I care about. What's gonna suck though is when Starz pulls the plug. Then what will people do? They say they're trying to renegotiate better contracts with the MPAA, etc, to allow streaming of newer movies. That's all good, but in my particular situation, I don't really do much streaming. In my case, I'm more of a DVD buff, because I like all the special features, commentaries, etc. With streaming, you don't get that; plus I don't really want to watch 20-30+ year old movies, and half the time I'm having bandwith problems like stuttering. You don't even get surround sound in streaming (at least I don't). DVD is goodness all the way around. I do like watching old TV shows and stuff on streaming though, but when it comes down to it, I'm a 90% dvd and 10% streaming customer.

I read on Wired about this being the reason for the split. Hollywood wants Netflix to charge it's customers a flat rate montly cost per user, regardless if you watch new streaming movies or not. Netflix argued that not everybody watches streaming (bandwith issues for instance being a reason). Hollywood says "we don't care, if they have access, they get billed full price". So the split up is to better serve the customers so you're not getting billed extra for a service you don't use. In my case, I may just drop the streaming once Starz leaves, unless they work out a better contract deal to bring in more recent content.

Still, I think it's pretty bad that the Netflix CEO would just announce (with no hint) an instant price increase company wide, then decide the best thing to do is split the company, and then try to cover it all up with an apology rather than just explain it all in black and white what's really going on.

[Adultery]

I heard about the increase at least 4 months before it happened. It gave me time to mill over my options. It's not like it was completely out of the blue...

[hansolo77]

You musta been a lucky one then. They never sent me any kind of prenotificiation that it was going to happen. It was one price one day, then up a few the next. I went online to find out why, that's when I heard about the massive groups of people pissed about it. Guess I just don't follow all the tech news like I should. Been too worried about work, fires, car falling apart, brother getting married, yadda yadda yadda.

[hansolo77]

RE: http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=adbf739e-2f2c-418c-a40c-f9e8d19f82e5

Here's the latest.. stock reports are in, and surpise? Netflix is down 800,000 members! Like they didn't expect it to happen? They're in shock? Whatever.

[Adultery]

I thought it was funny they were trying to re-organize and call it two different companies. Wonder what idiot move they'll make next?

[Draco1962]

Merge with Blockbuster?

[hansolo77]

Well, I got an email from them a few weeks ago saying the whole fiasco with splitting the company and changing the dvd-by-mail service name to "Qwikster" turned out to be not a great idea, and they decided not to go with it. However, the last I heard was they're still splitting the company, still keeping the current pricing structure, still losing 80% of streaming content (Starz) very soon, and still keeping everything under the Netflix name. There's rumors that they 'might' offer a 2-month free grace period for people to return to Netflix if you cancelled because of this. Since I didn't cancel, I don't think it's fair that I myself wouldn't be privy to such a deal. If anything, those customers who stayed with them should get preferential treatment, like a discount for a year or something. Otherwise, I could just quit now, then sign back up and reap the benefits.

[Adultery]

Nah. Blockbuster already got smart. They hooked up with Dish Network and have a bunch of 'red box' knockoffs. They don't need any 'help' right this minute. Lol!

[Pojosama]

This whole fiasco with netflix has been a weird example of making sure you have your business plan written in stone before speaking to the community.