I also hate the name “Qwikster” but I respect the strategy. The DVD-by-mail system is dead man walking. Broadband streaming is the future. This should allow netflix to focus on what’s growing and be able to cannibalize their own business model before someone else does. See Blockbuster.
Well, if they simply had to change the name, it should be something coherent like Netflix by Mail.
I believe most parts of the U.S are not infrastructured enough to sustain streaming video for the majority of their customers.
>>This should allow netflix to focus on what’s growing and be able to cannibalize their own business model before someone else does<<
Or go out of business because they can’t properly communicate with their subscribers.
Anyone can stream movies.
Broadband streaming is only viable if you stream content people actually WANT to watch.
Chinese movies and re-runs of old tv shows aren’t going to cut it.
Separating the two branches is the first step toward winding down or selling off the old DVD delivery system.
Also, it would allow a bankruptcy in the old branch without it affecting the new branch.
There are too many other streaming only competitors cropping up out there. In order to survive, Netflix has had to make some bold, albeit unpopular decisions.
Only to all you city folk. Here in the sticks we ain't got broadband and probably won't for the next 10 years or so. Streaming is out of the question for thousands of us. I love my DVD by mail, saves me the 50 mile round trip to the Redbox.
I don’t mind it. I prefer the streaming video, but I do rent DVD’s for the selection and I will continue to do so. (once I can get new releases and a better selection with the streaming, I’ll let the DVD’s go.)
I don’t understand why everyone is so upset about this. It’s basically the same thing, they’re just restructuring.
It doesn’t make sense to me why this it’s really necessary, but I’m not going to have a cow about it.
Maybe so. But right now, it is a royal pain in the a**, at least in our area and, I suspect, many others.
I don't care to watch a movie which chops up every 2-3 minutes while the streaming catches up.
I'll gladly wait a couple of days for a DVD which I can pop into the player and watch without technical interruption.
Also, I don't want to hook up my television set to an internet connection and wonder who may be spying on me or selling me sh*t I don't care to pay for. Nor do I care to have the family come crowding into a narrow little corner of the computer space designed for one user to watch some crappy little choppy streaming program on a 19" screen.
Its only a dead man walking until Netflix decides to stream everything. It dumb as can be that they have the dvds but won’t stream them, new or old.
I am seriously considering dropping the dvd option: the only reason I have not is because the newer releases do not stream and some issues I might like to see are dvd only. [For a recent example,before the Tudors ended you could stream season 1 and 3 but not 2. Now they are all available, but periodically such a case arises.]
I love the streaming part but have yet to understand why ALL their movies are not streamed.
Yes, but the transition from discs to streaming is best done seamless. Insofar as the streaming library is limited, let me get some back-catalog discs; that's why I kept 2-at-a-time for so long even though I often sat on the disc for a month or more: some stuff just isn't on streaming yet. Get me the content by whatever means necessary.
DVD-by-mail is now, indeed, dead man walking. Unable to do both without hassle, I had to cut the cord on one; bye, 20th Century physical media.