You can read the official word from Netflix here, but it just seems that their plan to spin off their DVD-by-mail service into a new entity (Qwikster) is going to kill their hard-earned brand. Nevermind the other hassles that come along with maintaining two similar, but different, accounts on two different sites (I’m sure somebody will create a browser extension or Greasmonkey script to make things easier by pulling content into one or the other).
Personally, this comment is probably the best explanation of all this I’ve seen:
This is great news! My dentist just did the same thing. It’s so much better. Now when I have cavities on my top row of teeth I go to one dentist, and when I have cavities on the bottom row, I go to the other dentist across town. Sure it’s frustrating that sometimes they can’t access my dental records that used to all be in one place, and yes I admit that it seems strange that they now charge me almost twice as much for the exact same dental care I received six months ago…but they are innovators! Besides, what choice do I have? They’re the only two dentists around. Well done Netflix! If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it. Simply hike the price, alienate your customer base and complicate your user interface under the guise of “progress”. Kudos.
That all being said, if it gets me incredible streaming service, I’ll drop my DVD-by-mail service in a heartbeat. If they had their entire DVD library digitized, then I wouldn’t even have to worry about this whole mess. But Netflix’s recommendation engine has found me some cool shows, and I hate to lose that when I have to maintain two separate queues and rating systems that won’t communicate with each other.
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Right about when the price hike went into place I was about to plunk down the money for the monthly prescription. I think it was $15 or something. I already have Hulu Plus and love it, but I wanted to check out Netflix too.
I backed off then, and this sounds even worse now. I would pay 1 fee for streaming, DVDs and Game by mail, but to hell if they are going to make me pay two different fees, log into two different web sites, etc, etc.
I will re-evaluate in a few months and see if they _really_ bolster their streaming content with their new found revenue stream.