Netflix did just ink a streaming deal with Dreamworks, which actually gives me a glimmer of hope because they have a shitton of great movies.

My account will remain on hold until all the dust settles though.

edit: Just read that it won't go into effect until 2013 though....

http://www.tekgoblin.com/2011/09/26/netflix-signs-exclusive-deal-with-dreamworks/

[Edited on September 26, 2011 at 7:47 PM. Reason : ]

9/26/2011 7:46:24 PM

dish network bought hulu today!

9/27/2011 12:19:17 PM

Yup, they're already turning off videos. You have to be a Dish subscriber to view the good stuff.

Also, netflix split because there is a federal law that prevents companies from selling your private movie rental history. This law doesn't apply to web companies, so they split the company so they could sell your data to advertisers/facebook/etc.

[Edited on September 27, 2011 at 12:52 PM. Reason : .]

9/27/2011 12:49:47 PM

oh that sucks. so what does this mean for paid hulu members? are they required to be a disk subscriber to be a paid hulu member?

9/27/2011 12:53:18 PM

no clue. it's still a very new deal i think. idk if any details have been worked out/announced yet. i'm excited (bc i'm a dish customer) but i would be worried if i wasn't & was a hulu+ subscriber. i know the blockbuster streaming (starts in oct) deal is only available to dish customers at first. i guess they might do the same with hulu to try to attract new customers for a while.

that said, if anybody wants a dish referral ($50 off your first bill), let me know.

9/27/2011 1:05:41 PM

This is definitely going to affect my decision to re-up with Directv.

Going to need a good, basic overview of what exactly this means.

9/27/2011 1:05:48 PM

perspective from the co-founder of netflix

http://marcrandolph.com/2011/09/26/did-netflix-screw-up-i-dont-think-so/

Quote :

"Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced last week that the company would be splitting off their DVD rental service into a new business to be called Qwikster. Last time I checked their blog post on the subject, there were 27,183 comments. Approximately 27,181 of them were negative. Wall Street didn’t approve of the move either, and the stock is now trading at less than half the price it was two months ago. Even my own friends are sending me puzzled notes, wondering if the “wheels are coming off the cart”. What can I say? They are all wrong. Not only am I completely in support of what Netflix is doing, but I think it is one of the smartest, most disciplined and bravest moves I’ve ever seen. Just to be clear, I haven’t worked for Netflix for years. So I have no inside knowledge of what specifically led to this particular decision, I haven’t talked to anyone there about it. Everything I know about it I picked up from the same sources you did. Nonetheless, I understand what they did and why they did it as completely and thoroughly as if I had been sitting around the conference table myself. Plain and simple, this move was all about focus. Relentless focus. A focus that has been deeply embedded in the Netflix DNA since day one Here’s an example of what I mean. When Reed and I launched Netflix in 1998, it was a very different company from the one you know today. The Queue, Unlimited Rentals, and the No-Due-Dates-No-Late-Fees model were still more than a year away. Our rentals were standard a-la-carte rentals. They had due dates. We charged late fees. Oh . . . we also sold DVDs. In fact, much to our great concern we sold a lot of DVDs. Bucket loads. So many, that by the end of our first summer, I would guess that 95% of our revenues were coming from the sales of DVDs. Although this did pay some bills, it was obvious to us that this was not a sustainable business. It was inevitable that at some point in the near future we would have Amazon entering the DVD business. And then Walmart. And then just about every mass market retailer in the country. All of which would have crushed our margins and slowly but surely driven us out of business. Not only that, but even while the going was good, it was hard not to let the tail wag the dog. Despite knowing that the true future of the company was rental, it was hard not to spend time focusing on the area of the business where most of the money was coming from. Most importantly, by trying to run a business that did two things well, we inevitably were forced to make an endless series of compromises that resulted in us doing neither of them well. Our landing page and sign up flow had to accommodate two different paths. Our checkout process needed to handle two types of transactions. Our shipping process had to accommodate two different types of products (one that had to come back and one that didn’t). Our content system had to accommodate titles we could only rent, ones we could only sell, and ones where we could do both. In hindsight, it seems like such an obvious decision to stop selling and focus on renting. But wow – for a young CEO like myself — turning away from the source of 95% of our revenue was just about the hardest thing I had ever done. Needless to say, it worked. Not only did walking away from 95% of our revenue have a way of focusing the mind on the remainder of our business, but the benefits began showing up everywhere – even in places we never suspected. By freeing our designers from having to create a sign-up flow that accommodated two types of business, we were able to cut out steps, clarify instructions and simplify the process. Conversion went up. By spotlighting a narrower benefit, we were able to clarify our positioning, resulting in more effective external marketing. Our acquisition costs went down. By focusing on a narrower set of problems, it made engineering much more productive. It made QA testing simpler. It made metrics more intuitive. And it paved the way for us to implement a process of rapid iteration and testing that ultimately uncovered the big innovations that ultimately led to the Queue, Unlimited Rentals, and No-Due-Dates-No-Late-Fees. The success emboldened us and we gained confidence in this approach, each time finding that narrowing our focus expanded our opportunities. I could probably come up with 150 examples, with each new success giving us renewed confidence in the benefits of folding partially successful hands in order to double down on more promising ones. At every product meeting, in addition to figuring out what to do, we made sure to devote time toward deciding what not to do. We referred to it as “scraping the barnacles”, and, like boat owners, found that if we had the discipline to regularly remove all the small things that inevitably accreted to our hull over time, it would have a noticeable effect on how fast we could move through the water. I suppose it’s only fair to mention at this point, that not everyone liked our decisions to get rid of these “barnacles”. For example, since early on nearly 3/4s of our customers were buying DVDs from us, it probably is safe to say that they were none-to happy that we stopped selling them. Ditto for the customers who loved renting a-la-carte only to see us drop it and focus on the all-you-can-eat program. While I’m at it, I’ll throw in an apology to the tens of thousands of other early Netflix customers who were part of price programs, feature tests, and other business experiments that we ultimately decided to discontinue. I’m truly sorry about all of it. But hard as each decision was in the short-term, I never questioned whether it was the right thing to do for the long-term success of the company. So even though I haven’t been at Netflix in a long time, I can easily imagine the growing frustration they must have felt these last few years as they made decisions they knew were suboptimal for the streaming business in order to maintain compatibility with the DVD business. How to work out pricing that covers multiple use cases. How to come up with messaging that embraces two different ways to receive movies. How to manage the significant differences in the content available between the two services. How to simplify the landing page and sign up flow. Well no longer. Not having to worry about compatibility between the services makes it infinitely easier to optimize every decision around the real prize, which is clearly streaming. Pricing. Messaging. Content. Sign-up-flow. All better now. Are customers upset? Undoubtedly. And I’ll be the 27,184th to say that the communications surrounding both the price increases and the Qwixter launch were ham-handed, tone-deaf, and have unquestionably damaged the brand. But should fear of either of these things have prevented Netflix from taking this step and ensuring that their streaming service has every possible advantage going forward? Absolutely not. In his blog post, Reed apologized for not communicating well, not for having made the wrong decision. I agree with him on both counts. But what is truly mindblowing, is that when I was CEO trying to screw up my nerve to walk away from selling DVDs, I risked alienating tens of thousands of customers. Reed is showing that he has courage and conviction to do the right thing despite having tens of millions of them. This is why this guy is the best entrepreneur on the planet"

i completely agree. it's very clear that dvd rental as a service is on its way out and streaming is much more profitable anyways (even with the much more expensive licensing agreements the studios are demanding these days). i'm glad netflix will be focused exclusively on providing a top notch streaming service and won't have to worry about the dvd side of the business.

i've used netflix since 2005 and have always been extremely happy with their service, particularly compared with the alternatives. $100+/month for cable vs $10+ per for dvd purchases or several times that for tv show seasons vs $8/month for unlimited streaming of almost anything i'd want to watch? netflix is still a great deal imo

9/27/2011 1:09:02 PM

Dish Network did NOT buy Hulu, they are one of the top bidders currently at 1.9 billion. However Google bid 4 billion for Hulu with some content stipulations. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

9/27/2011 1:19:46 PM

Quote :

"i completely agree. it's very clear that dvd rental as a service is on its way out and streaming is much more profitable anyways (even with the much more expensive licensing agreements the studios are demanding these days). i'm glad netflix will be focused exclusively on providing a top notch streaming service and won't have to worry about the dvd side of the business."

It depends on what the future is with streaming (here is where I feign ignorance...because I'm far from an expert on the situation).

First...isn't Netflix slowly losing a lot of it's good streaming content (I know Starz! is pulling out...but I also thought I heard there are other defections that are about to occur)??

Is streaming really the future? Because right now, you can't get recent big releases through streaming (with some exceptions). Will that ever change? If so...how long from now? How long before I'm available to stream the newest blockbuster after it gets out of the theaters?

9/27/2011 1:22:51 PM

^^the news lied then. maybe they got their stuff mixed up. oh well. i can't wait to see what happens anyway.

9/27/2011 1:30:57 PM

DVD portion is great because you get access to a large library, new releases (abit 30 days late compared to others), selection of older movies you can't find on streaming and the fact that upgrading to bluray rental isn't that much more. The streaming is great for those who like tv shows, old movies, foreign flicks and documentaries (which seem to be plentiful and continuously updated).

I liked how you could get both for the same price, but now that they are separated and raised the price by quite a bit it dismays me. But yeah, you are right, its still a good value for those people who see the benefits of netflix as it stands to them. As being a long time netflix customer, I cancelled it as my vote who does not appreciate these changes. I honestly wouldn't mind the cost increase if it was reasonable, but changing the dynamics of their business and cost increase at the same time is too much of a bold move for me.

Will I go out of my way to badmouth netflix? No, its their business and its their forecast and beyond that, I still think their service was awesome.

Will I ever come back to netflix? Most likely once they increase their content and add value to the point of where I'd reup, but right now; it's not to me.




I do find it humorous that they asked "what media replacement will you choose to replace netflix?" And listed "Bootleg DVD's" as an answer.

9/27/2011 1:56:34 PM

/thread

http://blog.netflix.com/2011/10/dvds-will-be-staying-at-netflixcom.html

10/10/2011 9:15:36 AM

Quote :

"It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs. This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster. While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes. We’re constantly improving our streaming selection. We’ve recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we’ve added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS. We value our members, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get movies & TV shows. Thank you. -Reed"

srsly?

10/10/2011 9:53:38 AM

This guy is a fucking moron

10/10/2011 10:06:03 AM

Quote :

"i completely agree. it's very clear that dvd rental as a service is on its way out and streaming is much more profitable anyways (even with the much more expensive licensing agreements the studios are demanding these days)."

I disagree. Their DVD Rental is the only business we today can guarantee will pay off. The dislodge Netflix from the DVD Rental space would be absurdly difficult given their deployed infrastructure. It is also the only business they enjoy a price ceiling on: as Netflix has done before, if the studios get too demanding or outright refuse licensing, Netflix can always go buy DVDs at Walmart. Not so with their streaming service. No licensing agreement means the police show up if you try to stream it. In the future there will be lots of streaming services, which means there will be a price war between them for licensed content, which just like with the Satellite Radio wars will run all the companies into bankruptcy.

10/10/2011 10:10:16 AM

well said

10/10/2011 10:25:38 AM

This is the biggest facepalm I have ever witnessed.

10/10/2011 11:00:32 AM

So I want to get 3 DVDs out at a time and NOT pay for streaming. It appears this is not possible. Am I wrong?

10/10/2011 11:07:26 AM

You are wrong. 3 DVDs at a time is $15.99 a month, streaming is an extra $8 on top of that.

10/10/2011 11:21:38 AM

I guess I'm a moron because I don't see a way to select that...when I click restart my membership it then shows me that Im signing up for this:

-------
Your Membership
$7.99 a month

Watch instantly on your PC, Mac or TV
(Does not include DVDs by mail. Not all titles available to watch instantly.)
-------

And gives me the option to add on 1 DVD at a time for another 7.99 a month. I can't uncheck streaming or add movies...

10/10/2011 11:37:48 AM

It sounds like Netflix has screwed up their renewal form. Once your account is active, the "change plan" screen is contains all the options. If I were you and wanted to resume my membership, I'd call them to do so. No point running the risk of being charged.

10/10/2011 11:43:23 AM

JUST KIDDING

10/11/2011 2:44:50 PM

^^^That is also what the FAQ states.

Maybe there is a way to get more than 1, but I wouldn't be surprised if the only way was to already be grandfathered in (kind of like the shift from unlimited to tiered data).

It definitely seems like they want the DVD part of their business to die off. Why else would you make it difficult or impossible for people to purchase more of the thing you are fucking selling?

10/11/2011 3:38:25 PM

On the phone with them now...LoneSnark is correct, 3 DVDs at a time, no streaming is $16

And yeah, if I clicked all the way through the signup process I would have later had the option to change apparently

BUT WAIT, HERE IS A HORRIBLE PART. If you cancelled recently, THEY DID NOT SAVE YOUR QUEUE!

I have to start from scratch

10/11/2011 4:47:04 PM

Good, all those movies were shit anyway.

10/11/2011 4:55:46 PM

Quote :

"This is the biggest facepalm I have ever witnessed."

Haha.

10/11/2011 8:10:22 PM

indeed. I almost feel obligated to post a captain picard facepalm in here

10/11/2011 10:27:35 PM

Does anyone have more than one Roku box on a single account? I know you can have multiple devices on a single account (6?) but I'm wondering if there is a limit on the number of identical devices. We have a PS3 in the living room and a roku in the exercise room and I would like to put a roku in our bonus room as well now. (I would look on their site but it is blocked at work of course)

[Edited on December 5, 2011 at 10:06 AM. Reason : ]

12/5/2011 10:04:34 AM

they changed the amount of devices per account. its dependent on how many dvd's you are renting that dictates the number of streams at once. So if you have a 1 dvd plan and online streaming, only one account/device can stream at a time; 3 dvd's = 3 streams. They changed this quietly last summer to stop family and friends from borrowing their netflix accounts.

It makes sense considering that 6 stream at one time for $8 a month was a bargin, but putting severe limitations on streaming with less and less content they have now with the price hikes and all of the shit that they threw at us in the past 6 months has left a bitter taste in my mouth. And its really not netflix's fault, they are middle management fighting the content providers and cable companies.

12/5/2011 10:31:37 AM

^What about streaming only accounts?

12/5/2011 10:38:21 AM

Right. This is a streaming only account; however, we would still only be streaming on one single device at any given time, just having another authorized device listed for my netflix account.

I mainly wasn't sure what they meant by "unique devices" when they talked about the number you could have authorized to your account. This is more of an issue of just having them in more physical locations throughout the house than streaming to more than one TV simultaneously.

IOW, do they allow two identical Roku XD's linked to my single netflix account as long as I am only actually streaming netflix on one of them at any given time?

[Edited on December 5, 2011 at 10:39 AM. Reason : ]

12/5/2011 10:38:30 AM

One stream only account is only good for one steam. I believe you can buy multiple streams on the same account, but there's no discount on the more you buy.

12/5/2011 11:41:58 AM