Laughing OL'd at the Netflix marketing flunkies while I'm streaming yet another free movie via my Amazon Prime membership.

/FTW

//Netflix's streaming selection sucks ass.

Isn't there biggest problem licensing for streaming?.


/DRTFA

Cubansaltyballs: They have seriously damaged their brand and they face competition from others that provide an equal/better service.

If Amazon can update their online streaming service to allow users to create a queue/playlist/etc, they can put netflix out of business. For the same amount of money, you can stream almost the exact same content while getting free 2-day shipping on everything else you buy.

It's becoming apparent that, when other big companies are offering similar services, it's very important to manage your brand / image. You can see how the tide has turned away from Netflix just by the tone of the posts in this 'thread' thus far. They mismanaged the price increase and Flixster split / "oops my bad" debacle, and it's hurt them dearly when it comes to the general public's perception of their service.

The stupid thing is that their hands were essentially tied when it comes to the price increase. Licensing costs are going through the roof (10x more now compared to the last contracts), and they need to pass on some of those costs to the subscribers. I don't blame NFLX for this -- I blame the movie studios and large media companies to demanding such large sums to continue to make available what they apparently felt was fair just a few years ago. Netflix's PR screwed the pooch, though, when it came to communicating the increase.

It sounds like NFLX is trying to get more into the TV show side of streaming (a la Hulu). If the streaming is ~$9/mo, and it's ~$2 per episode to watch some premium brands on iTunes, it does make sense to subscribe if you watch a couple of shows that aren't available for free on Hulu or the station's website.

/ On the Netflix 2-at-a-time DVD plan
// Dropped streaming since there wasn't much available that interested me
/// Still like getting DVDs (for movies or TV-on-DVD), and I'll probably remain on the plan barring further price increases

Cubansaltyballs: "Hey, we're raising prices and f*ck you." That's not a good way to do it. They should have done more of a PR campaign beforehand

Saying that they're raising prices because the studios have them over a barrel would not exactly make the studios happy.

Good, hope the people behind the decision to jack the prices rot!

Man, you guys are a bunch of tards. Netflix is awesome. Amazon prime is an up and comer, but they only have a small fraction of the content.

And for the record, Netflix was completely correct in trying to amputate their DVD rentals and push for streaming only. It's the future. Mail service via USPS has an uncertain future and DVDs as a data media are quickly dying. The future of the industry is in streaming. It would be retarded for Netflix NOT to head in the direction they're going in.

Now, they definitely could have handled things better. But everyone freaked the fark out over nothing. "ZOMG! They're raizin' their prices!" Well, ya. USPS delivery is getting more expensive. I just ditched the DVD service (which I never use anymore anyway) and now I actually pay less for the service I actually want. Plus, literally every device plugged into my TV has built in Netflix functionality. Including the TV.

I can understand being mad if you're a dork and your AOL dial-up can't handle streaming content. If that's the case, maybe Netflix isn't for you.

Generation_D: There don't appear to be any good image searches for "screwed the pooch," which is unfortunate, because thats what netflix senior leadership did. well done boys and girls.

I'm certain that senior leadership's millions in pay and compensation is necessary though. How else could NetFlix attract "Top Talent". I mean come on. If even the guys with MBAs couldn't tell that pissing off their entire customer base - twice - in 30 days could tank the company's stock, who could?

/s

WhyteRaven74: Saying that they're raising prices because the studios have them over a barrel would not exactly make the studios happy.

Didn't they end up saying that regardless?

/doesn't understand the netflix hate

>$0 seems like too much

Honest Bender: Man, you guys are a bunch of tards. Netflix is awesome.

I'm in the same boat.

Yeah, Netflix screwed up and it sucked that they had to raise prices. But, still, the service is awesome and I definitely get my $16 out of it every month.

And, I can freaking turn on my TV, computer, or phone and be watching a movie or TV show within 2 minutes. Everyone complains about how the streaming selection sucks, but I've been perfectly happy with it.

I can watch older stuff and TV shows while they rotate stuff through the streaming section and, if I want to watch a newer movie, I put that in my queue as my 1 DVD at a time.

Who cares if I can't watch a 60-day old movie through the streaming section?

Honest Bender: Man, you guys are a bunch of tards. Netflix is awesome. Amazon prime is an up and comer, but they only have a small fraction of the content.

And for the record, Netflix was completely correct in trying to amputate their DVD rentals and push for streaming only. It's the future. Mail service via USPS has an uncertain future and DVDs as a data media are quickly dying. The future of the industry is in streaming. It would be retarded for Netflix NOT to head in the direction they're going in.

Now, they definitely could have handled things better. But everyone freaked the fark out over nothing. "ZOMG! They're raizin' their prices!" Well, ya. USPS delivery is getting more expensive. I just ditched the DVD service (which I never use anymore anyway) and now I actually pay less for the service I actually want. Plus, literally every device plugged into my TV has built in Netflix functionality. Including the TV.

I can understand being mad if you're a dork and your AOL dial-up can't handle streaming content. If that's the case, maybe Netflix isn't for you.



/Crude and sloppy, Clansman.
//Your trolling was no better than that of a clumsy child.
///Zero out of ten.

streaming farking sucks.

"oooooooooh lemme stand in line 72 hours for the newest black friday deal on a nice 50" hdtv for $200 off. yay I was early enough in line I got it!! wooo, what should I watch on it now? ooh, I know I'll use the hdmi out on my computer and stream shiat with effectively slightly better than dvd quality. I won't notice though because I haven't configured my display , and I sit about 2x the effective 1080p resolvable viewing distance for people with 20/20 vision"



let me know when you can stream anything close to resembling hd quality (both audio, and video. not downrezzed/re-encoded/bitstarved etc).
then, let me know when you can do it with low latency, and do it more than 5-10 times a month without going over your ISP bandwidth quota. then, let me know when you can do it everywhere in the country. finally, let me know when you can do it with subtitle selection enabled and/or any other features that are actually useful for those who are deaf, want to watch movies without dubs, etc.

Dr J Zoidberg: Moving into my own place on January with a couple of roommates. Probably going to get Netflix. That said, does anyone here have live in an area where it snows in the winter and have satellite, and if so how bad does the reception get? It's a choice between 200 satellite channels and basic digital cable and the satellite is still about $5/month cheaper than cable.

live in west chicago suburbs, only lost signal 3x in the last 5 years, 1 in the winter-- the 24" storm last year. the other 2 were in large july-august type thunderstorms.

I use netflix streaming a fair amount, don't use the dvd service much at all anymore. Price changes pissed me off at first then I realized that in the passed year I had actually rented maybe 5 dvd's. New movie content streaming is actually pretty good.

Cubansaltyballs: WxGuy1: The stupid thing is that their hands were essentially tied when it comes to the price increase. Licensing costs are going through the roof (10x more now compared to the last contracts), and they need to pass on some of those costs to the subscribers. I don't blame NFLX for this -- I blame the movie studios and large media companies to demanding such large sums to continue to make available what they apparently felt was fair just a few years ago. Netflix's PR screwed the pooch, though, when it came to communicating the increase.

Yeah, I'm sure the studios did put some pressure on pricing, but I think the focus on revenue growth was just as apparent.

The problem wasn't their price increase by itself, it was how they rolled it out. "Hey, we're raising prices and f*ck you." That's not a good way to do it. They should have done more of a PR campaign beforehand, and probably phased in the price increases over 3-6 months. They also could have lessened the blow by getting revenue from other angles. For example, you have the streaming but don't want the dvd service, you can rent one DVD for $2 or something. That would put them in line to compete with redbox or whatever.

Their naming/splitting thing just made it worse. It basically made everything tougher on the customer and showed everyone they don't give a sh*t about customers.

After this, Amazon is in an excellent position to take them out altogether. Netflix now offers an average service that is easily replaced by more convenient methods such as Amazon Prime and Redbox. The compelling reason to stay with them used to be they had good customer service and you thought they cared about you.

Netflix must have hired some old Blockbuster or Circuit City executives, the way they handled everything. A year ago, they were the darling of the consumer world. Now they are pretty hated or at least shrugged off. They got too big too fast, I guess.

Generation_D: There don't appear to be any good image searches for "screwed the pooch," which is unfortunate, because thats what netflix senior leadership did. well done boys and girls.



Its rare that you get to see such a complete, quick, and transparent self destruction by a major corporation. Even the major banks have taken decades to implode. But Netflix, just a matter of months.

I didn't really have a major issue with Netflix raising their prices. I still only pay $22/month and I get unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail. I use both of those services. I wish Netflix had a better selection of streaming stuff, but most of the stuff I want to watch is on there (I watch a lot of documentaries, but not a lot of TV shows). I think that, at what, $17/month before or whatever, it was an absolute steal. And sure they raised prices, but shiat, practically EVERYTHING has gone up in price significantly over the last couple of years.

I've been thinking about getting Amazon Prime, but my concern is that, if Amazon Prime DOES put Netflix out of business, they'll just jack up their rates or move from unlimited streaming to pay-per-stream, which would be WAY more expensive than what it is now.

I'm also okay with people dropping netflix. It means there's less competition for the DVDs that I want to get by mail.

/I just wish Netflix did game rentals too
//I've heard they just might
///If they did game rentals the way Gamefly does it, I just might drop GF

LouDobbsAwaaaay Are we left with a choice of either being assholes for not supporting Netflix's decision or being assholes for not supporting the stock-market's decision?

#OCCUPYMYCOUCH

skinink: "I've been thinking about getting Amazon Prime, but my concern is that, if Amazon Prime DOES put Netflix out of business, they'll just jack up their rates or move from unlimited streaming to pay-per-stream, which would be WAY more expensive than what it is now."
For the moment, Amazon Prime is worth it if you place enough orders with Amazon and you like their selection of movies included in Prime (which is just okay at the moment). But you don't need Prime to rent tv shows or movies from Amazon. And I'm pretty happy that I can rent "Walking Dead" the day after it airs on cable. Two dollars an episode/ eight dollars a month, plus no commercials.

We order from Amazon a few times a year, but I don't know that I place enough orders to make it worthwhile. And I definitely don't like paying a per-show fee, either. If it's $1/show, but I watch 30 shows a month, that's more expensive than paying $22/month with Netflix and watching the same shows (assuming I can watch them).

I remember when New Coke completely destroyed the Coca-Cola empire.

skinink: eally can't wait for one of the Big Four to be the first to offer a streaming package for Roku because expensive cable tv really needs to end.

That will never happen because of who owns the 4 major tv channels.

cman: For being a decade old company, Netflix hasn't had many fark ups.

Yes, this summer with the price jacking and Qwickster were bad ideas. Be that as it may Netflix will survive and even thrive now.

If I had some free doe I would buy some of their stock.

Quickster was the stupidest idea I ever heard, worse than New Coke. I understand their business model is in trouble and I understand rising prices, but WTF, everyone involved in that idea should have been fired immediately.

skinink: "I've been thinking about getting Amazon Prime, but my concern is that, if Amazon Prime DOES put Netflix out of business, they'll just jack up their rates or move from unlimited streaming to pay-per-stream, which would be WAY more expensive than what it is now."
For the moment, Amazon Prime is worth it if you place enough orders with Amazon and you like their selection of movies included in Prime (which is just okay at the moment). But you don't need Prime to rent tv shows or movies from Amazon. And I'm pretty happy that I can rent "Walking Dead" the day after it airs on cable. Two dollars an episode/ eight dollars a month, plus no commercials.



This whole saga has been about Netflix taking on the Masters of the Universe: Time Warner and ComunistCast. They caught the big boys completely off guard, and have been raping and pillaging them, much to their chagrin.

As a result, TW and Com have declared all out war against NFLX. Why should people pay $100-150 a month for their cable packages when they can just pay $9 and get unlimited streaming of movies, using the very high speed backbone provided by them? Not only were they offering the public a superior type of service at a fraction of the cost, but they were using their own backbone against them while slowing down the rest of their network. Many people have been cancelling their cable TV service and having only internet, a trend similar to how people have dropped their phone land-line to use only their cellphone.

This is a trend that has scared the two big media behemoths shiatless, and they have been doing everything in their power at every turn to kill Netflix, from demanding higher royalties to their push in Congress to kill Net Neutrality (which effectively kills Netflix in its tracks). And tiny little NFLX, who had thus far been able to weather the storm, is now starting to really suffer the brunt of their blows. They were forced into making the pricing decision due to the increased royalty costs. Granted, they bungled it greately, but the main reason they even had to do it was due to the all-out warfare that was declared on them from the 800 lb gorillas in the room.

In the end, it's too bad, because NFLX offered great competition. If it dies, yes, Amazon can revert to more of a itunes model, and the big two can continue offering inferior service for ridiculous prices.

As much as I think NFLX's execution on this debacle was foolish, we need them around to offer serious and legitimate competition for the benefit of consumers.

Taking them out of the equation is similar to, for example, taking Sony out of the gaming console market and letting MSFT sell their poor quality products with impunity.

Barakku: cman: For being a decade old company, Netflix hasn't had many fark ups.

Yes, this summer with the price jacking and Qwickster were bad ideas. Be that as it may Netflix will survive and even thrive now.

If I had some free doe I would buy some of their stock.

Quickster was the stupidest idea I ever heard, worse than New Coke. I understand their business model is in trouble and I understand rising prices, but WTF, everyone involved in that idea should have been fired immediately.

To Netflix's credit, they did decide to abandon the idea of Quickster or whatever. You already have two different queues (one for your DVDs-by-mail, and one for your instant queue), so it wouldn't be *that* difficult to manage two queues. But still, I'm glad Netflix decided to not go with splitting their services.

Netflix can do a few things to get back some good faith:

1) Fire their CEO.

2) Lower prices again.

Otherwise, they're pissing in the wind.

inline4: Good, hope the people behind the decision to jack the prices rot!

Hollywood?

Arctic Phoenix: We order from Amazon a few times a year, but I don't know that I place enough orders to make it worthwhile. And I definitely don't like paying a per-show fee, either. If it's $1/show, but I watch 30 shows a month, that's more expensive than paying $22/month with Netflix and watching the same shows (assuming I can watch them).

thats just it. I went through 2 seasons of White Collar in the last two weeks, so its either $30 on Amazon or $23 for Netflix + the 12 dvds over the course of the month. Either way its cheaper than cable, but I don't see how people view Amazon as the definitively superior option.

so Netflix costs more than it used to. That doesn't automatically make it a bad deal.

Cinaed: /doesn't understand the netflix hate

Me neither. IMO all this whining about Netflix is just industrial-grade stupid. Netflix is so superior to cable or satellite that there's no comparison. Hell, I have both Netflix (streaming and DVDs) AND Amazon Prime, and I'm still paying less than half of the minimum cost of DirecTV, which I hardly ever watched. I live out in the country where there's no cable, but I understand it costs even more than DirecTV.

Anyway, thanks for the stock tip, subby. I think I'll go buy some.

Summer Glau's Love Slave: trollpic.jpg

Cool story, bro. But I wasn't trolling.

This summer my subscription for Netflix dropped in price (I almost never used the DVDs) and a slew of content I want to watch was added (acclaimed TV shows I missed on first run). Since I grew up renting from Blockbuster, the idea that Netflix is somehow anti-customer is just laughable.

This whole "they rolled out their reasonable changes wrong" argument is baloney too. The media picked its narrative and ran with it (not at all because their parent companies are launching competing services I am sure).

So the speculators jumped ship, Who cares? If there is one thing that should be apparent at this point, it is that the stock market has almost no actual ability to assess real value or to divert capital to productive enterprise efficiently. Its only function now is to generate trading fees and facilitate the creation of value from swings in perception. Netflix doesn't get anything based on its stock price unless it issues new stock.

They paid the price to shift to a sustainable, grow-able business, and all their competitors are clamoring to emulate their old business model.

Remember we have to pay those CEO's the really big dollars or we won't attract the top talent to those important positions.

Bob16: Remember we have to pay those CEO's the really big dollars or we won't attract the top talent to those important positions.

1.) Go out and get the qualifications necessary for a company to offer you a position as CEO
2.) Accept the position for whatever wage you like

Fark_Guy_Rob: 1.) Go out and get the qualifications necessary for a company to offer you a position as CEO
2.) Accept the position for whatever wage you like

Go out and get the qualifications necessary to post a cogent argument rather than a meaningless non sequitur