Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by pyrmont on Monday September 19, 2011 @12:25AM (#3012233)

While they seem to be going to great pains to be genuine and upfront about what they're doing, why does Netflix need to create a separate company in order to innovate? Apple doesn't have a separate Mac and iPhone business and they seem to innovate just fine.

What really seems to be going on is that Netflix is getting ready to spin off its DVD business. That this seems so obvious makes the repeated apologies feel like an insult to our intelligence.

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Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by male_salmon on Monday September 19, 2011 @12:39AM (#3012273)

As Reed says, the streaming business is global, but the DVD business is US-only. Maintaining code that services functions that apply in some locales but not others will slow down Netflix's ability to innovate.

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Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by pyrmont on Monday September 19, 2011 @12:50AM (#3012306)

Again, Apple runs businesses (eg. Macs) that operate in some jurisdictions that their other businesses (eg. iTunes) do not. You don't need a structural separation to 'innovate', you need a structural separation to ease a sale of a business.

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Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by elq on Monday September 19, 2011 @01:00AM (#3012340)

I honestly don't care how Apple runs it's business. I don't work for apple, I do, on the other hand, work for netflix, and not having to worry about DVDs will be a nice relief.

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Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by foobarbazoo on Monday September 19, 2011 @02:52AM (#3012618)

^^ This is why Netflix is fubar'd. Totally internally looking -- not giving a shit what it means for their customers.

Yeah, we all love paying two bills each month, having to search for content two places, having our ratings queues forked and kept out of sync. Thanks, we're all so glad to hear that it's easier for you.

We'll make it even easier: find new customers. We're gone.

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Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by 18pfsmt on Monday September 19, 2011 @08:54AM (#3013320)

You pay $200/ month? Maybe you meant $20?

I would be interested in what you find as a good replacement because I might consider a switch if it were good enough. I just killed my cable and that was costing me ~$70/ month.

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Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by CamperBob on Monday September 19, 2011 @08:51PM (#3015812)

Your customers beg to disagree.

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Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by male_salmon on Monday September 19, 2011 @01:03AM (#3012350)

I might agree with you if Netflix ran their DVD business in a few other countries. That is not the case however. The DVD business is still profitable. Reed said it's unlikely he'll sell it for a long time.

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Re:Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster by MartinCron on Monday September 19, 2011 @12:53AM (#3012323)

The dvd-streaming divide difficulty is nothing compared to the difficulty around licensing content for different territories, as the studios are just a nightmare.

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