
Netflix is now Qwikster…sort of?
Well now you did it. You got all huffy about the DVD price being split from the streaming price and you made Netflix sad. On the heels of their stock drop from announcing that they are shedding around 1 million users (20% of that streaming, the other 80% DVD), Netflix announced this morning that they are splitting the DVD service off entirely and spinning it into a newly branded company. Qwikster. No you didn’t read that wrong, and my spell check will never forgive me for it. Netflix has decided it will be less confusing for you to manage two queues of services, one for DVD mailing and one for instant. You will receive two bills from two companies each month. That is if you decide to keep both.
I still make relatively heavy use of Netflix DVD, but the tides may be changing. My thoughts on this are somewhat divided, ironically. On one hand, I get it. It will be less confusing for all down the line if you have two separate services that do two decidedly different things. On the other, this makes it feel much easier to drop the DVD service, or not pick it up at all in the first place. What is the draw now? Will people keep this or does Netflix see a trend towards streaming that they are whole heartedly embracing and sending the DVD by mail service off to pasture.
They jokingly add in the press release that there are no price changes going on, this is purely a branding, corporate decision. So you won’t have to worry about another $2 hike, God forbid.
The question then, is does this matter? Have you already made your decision? Are you dropping DVD’s? Does a snappy name like Qwikster make more sense to you, so now you’ll be keeping it?
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justin