∞ Netflix rebrands DVD service Qwikster

Netflix will soon call its DVD mailing service Qwikster and will branch out to video game rentals. The revelation comes from Reed Hastings, the service’s decidedly more contrite co-founder and CEO, who sent out an e-mail to subscribers entitled “An Explanation and Some Reflections.”

Hastings started out the lengthy e-mail by admitting Netflix fumbled its previous announcement that it would break apart DVD shipping and streaming. “… many members felt we lacked respect and humility,” said Hastings. “That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology.”

Hastings revealed that Netflix will rebrand its DVD subscription service “Qwikster.com,” and will branch out to offer users the ability to rent video games for Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles – a shot across the bow of Gamefly, which offers a Netflix-style rental service by mail, and Redbox, the video rental kiosk system which has also begun to offer video games.

Netflix.com and Qwikster.com will not have integrated Web sites, Hastings said. Users who continue to subscribe to both the DVD mailing and streaming services will need to manage their rental queues on the two separate services, and will see two separate bills on their credit card – though the cumulative price will remain the same as what Netflix has previously described.

Hastings’ note comes a few days after Netflix lowered its forecasted subscriber base by one million, from 25 to 24 million subscribers. The company’s stock valuation has taken a beating, down 40 percent since it announced plans to restructure its subscription prices over the summer. The company’s loss of content partner Starz hasn’t helped the stock’s downward slide, either.

Hastings defends the price increase, calling streaming and DVD “two different businesses, with very different cost structures.”

“I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly,” Hastings said.

JEZ

So long Netflix/Qwikster!
http://twitter.com/zwei zwei

I love my Netflix!

Every time I hear people saying they can’t find anything to watch on Netflix I wonder WTF is wrong with them. Maybe I get better recommendations because I’ve rated over 2000 movies …maybe it’s the fact that I don’t have cable …maybe I just have bad taste. All I know is that I have so much streaming stuff in my queue that I can’t keep up.

I’m guessing people who DO have cable are expecting Netflix to be like HBO, Showtime, or Cinemax—some $10 add-on premium service. If you already have 100 channels of misc television Netflix definitely isn’t going to seem as compelling. You are duplicating a lot of crap. To me, it’s my main source, and it’s wonderful. I also have Hulu+ and I rent through Amazon Video too, but Netflix is the one service I feel I’d absolutely hate to have ripped away from me.

http://www.thegraphicmac.com JimD

I’m leaning toward “you have bad taste.”

http://twitter.com/zwei zwei

http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

1. Netflix: flailing.

2. Qwikster: infantile name.

3. Is splitting the business justified by the low subscriber overlap between the two services?

http://twitter.com/zwei zwei

They are pre-emptively packaging their waste for disposal. They are already streaming more video than distributing via DVD—the trend is not going to change. Compare it to Apple dropping the floppy/optical drives. Tons of people think it’s too early to do, but…

You may say netflix is flailing …but name another service out there that provides a better streaming service. No other service comes close in my eyes.

http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

Regardless of the actual quality of their service, they’re diluting the brand that everyone knows. It’s as if Apple had spun off its iPod division and named it “Nectarine.”

Steven Fisher

He’s absolutely right. But since it involved a price increase (possibly too large of one), people are motivated not to see it.
http://www.powerwatchers.com/ Dean Lewis

I’m with Zwei on this one. As someone who has “cut the cord”, Netflix’s streaming service is perfect at providing stuff for me to browse through and watch. I don’t have 800 channels of crap to choose from anymore. I did have the one-DVD-at-a-time service, but I killed it since I can rent DVDs near to me if I really want more cheaply. I just give up the mail delivery and have to get off my butt to do rent, which is okay since it’ll keep my butt from expanding further as it is.

My biggest gripe about Netflix is their inconsistent interfaces across devices. It’s different on the computer, the PS3, and the Roku box I have — and all of the interfaces stink. Netflix continues messing with it, so from day to day you never know what the interface will look like, but you can be sure it will be changed to be even more difficult to see many items at once and browse, and the search field will be hidden in a new and exciting way. They often surprise me with just how much worse they can make it with each update.