Last month, Netflix announced a price hike for their DVD and online streaming services. Customers were not so happy. Yesterday Netflix publicly apologized for the changed, admitted they “messed up” and added one interesting wrinkle: Netflix, as you know it, is changing.
Netflix will no longer be in the DVD-by-mail business. Instead Netflix will be focusing solely on online streaming of digital content. But what about those people (I, among them) who still enjoy renting actual discs? You’ll be doing that through a brand new company Netflix is spinning off itself called Qwikster.
Wait….what the fuck?
Yeah, I know. Let’s figure this all out. Qwikster will basically be the service Netflix was when it started – DVDs and Blu-ray by mail. The good news is that there will be one nice addition: video games. Qwikster will be offering up all variety of games for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.
Netflix simply be the streaming service that you’ve come to enjoy (?) on your computer, mobile device or TV.
But here’s the obvious downside. While they’re both owned by the same corporation, they’ll be operating as two different companies. Which means two websites, two accounts, two charges to your credit card, etc. Also any ratings and reviews you post to movies will only work on that specific website (if you review a movie on Netflix, it won’t show up on Qwikster). Since they’ve already raised the prices, you won’t see any change in price for the services.
As you might expect, customers aren’t exactly thrilled. To their credit, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings is replying to comments left under his blog post about the change. If you’re unhappy (or happy) with the decision, read his full post and let them know…