Hacker News Reader

Comment by foobarbazoo | Hacker News Reader

From the customer's perspective, they are not two separate businesses. They are one, strong business (well, were).

Streaming is most valuable when DVD is (a) there as a backup, and (b) managed with the same system.

Netflix has seriously decreased the value of their streaming offering by separating out the DVD and de-integrating their systems.

There is basically no reason to pay for Kwikster now (terrible name BTW), and the streaming is now an extra cost. We'll have our kids use Amazon Prime, which we already pay for. They're much less choosy for content anyway, and it cuts off another monthly bill.

Someone inside of Netflix should have had the balls to tell your CEO this was a stupid idea and customers would hate it.

View on HN

You don't speak for all Netflix customers when you offer your perspective.

I joined Netflix because of streaming and I prefer to look at streaming only. When I joined netflix I got a DVD and didn't return it for a year. I didn't want to return it because I didn't want to get another DVD. In search results I never wanted to see the DVD results. I wanted to see what I could watch now. Content is such a key part of this. If the streaming service had the same or more content than the DVD business, nobody would care. But since they are still building that collection and struggling with content owners, people are freaking out.

Time will tell whether this was a stupid idea for the market at large. As a streaming customer, I'm indifferent. As a tech pundit, I think it was an important strategic move and I applaud Netflix.

I think you're throwing out the baby with the bathwater. There are straightforward technical solutions they could implement to address your complaints, but for those of us that aren't so extreme, there's no easy solution to the way they're breaking our desired usage.

I am a Netflix customer. I don't care what they do with their DVD collection. The only reason I occasionally ordered a DVD is because it was available in my subscription. Since the split, I've canceled my DVD service. I hate DVDs. I don't want to wait for them, I don't want to handle them, I don't want to remember to mail them back.

To me the split has zero impact on my perception of the value of the streaming service.

I looked at Amazon about 6 months ago, and there was no content of interest there that was not also on Netflix.

I am also a Netflix customer. I too canceled my DVD service. I haven't ordered a DVD from Netflix for months.

I had previously thought that if I ever did want to order a DVD again (for something not available on streaming), I could just reinstate the DVD service and order it. Now, it appears, I would have to sign up with a totally different system to get the DVDs. I'm probably not going to bother doing that.

I am baffled as to why they would split the DVDs into a different business altogether. It's a different product, sure, but need it be a whole separate business? I trust it makes sense internally to Netflix, and I presume it is projected to be more profitable. And if so, then I can hardly blame them for doing it. But as a user, I don't get it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com