Really, Netflix?

[veronica_rich]

Really?

Yep. I think you're trying to commit entreprenicide.

Comments

[finding-neo.livejournal.com]

I'm not bothered too much by the Netflix kerfluffle. Yeah, they're stupid for changing their minds and their business model. But it's their rope, they can hang themselves with it.

Somehow I doubt they will. They have seen the future and they know it is ONLINE. I laugh because one of the reasons people give for being pissed about the rate hikes is that the streaming content is not nearly as diverse as the DVD-by-mail. There was a time when not very much was available via DVD either, there certainly isn't yet enough selection on Blue-Ray to make an ardent movie buff swoon. It was the same with VHS and heaven forbid you bought a Beta back in the '80s.

So give them time, the streaming content will become well worth the wait. And will free up your living rooms because we'll no longer need 6 pieces of furniture just for our movie selections.

BTW, I am as cheap as them come. Netflix has a limited plan for $4.99/month. You get 2 movies by mail and 2 movies streamed online. As someone who works a lot that's very reasonable for me, especially when 1 DVD can be from a TV show set, which can contain 4 episodes. I sometimes forget to mail them back, so some months I don't even use 2 rentals. If I had unlimited I doubt I would be getting my money's worth for what, $18/month?

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking less from the user end on this one, than from the decision-making end. Some analysts have compared it to the New Coke debacle, but really, it isn't. Coca-Cola still had Old Coke to simply fall back on when they screwed up, plus, they'd been in business for almost 100 years already. Netflix is not so old and solid that they can afford to screw around with their one basic service like this, when they have no intention of backtracking on the dumb (like Coke did).