This is going to be in future textbooks as an example of business ineptness.
Netflix is jettisoning an activity they are very good at - rapid delivery of a product to the consumer. An product that cost almost nothing to purchase.
To an activity where they are held hostage to a virtual monopoly by the producers of content.
The CEO keeps on talking about Blockbuster.
Blockbuster did not fail because people didn’t want to rent DVD’s. Blockbuster failed because it had huge costs in doing business. Redbox killed Blockbuster because it could supply people with DVD with almost no operating cost.
By the way folk, you are NOT punishing or sending a message to Netflix by cancelling your DVD service. That is exactly what they want you to do.
DVD cost money to buy, store, package, ship and receive.
Streaming has high upfront cost in licensing, but there’s hardly any cost after that.
If cancellations didn’t send Netflix a message, we wouldn’t have gotten this non-apology apology. The stock has tanked, and they have lost far more accounts than they thought they would. I think this is going to really accelerate the cancellations.