Peon's Place

Yes, that’s the actual 3-month stock drop from Netflix current as of today. Remember when Netflix announced a 60% price increase? We all knew that would be a big mistake. Netflix tried to announce Qwikster, which of course failed. CEO Reed Hastings has apologized for nearly everything he has decided to do lately.

• September 2010: Reed Hastings says Americans are self-absorbed and ignorant of Canadian price disparity.
• September 2010: Reed Hastings Apologizes
• November 2010: Netflix raises their monthly price $1.00/month.
• September 2011: Netflix raises their monthly price by 60%.
• September 2011: Reed Hastings Apologizes and announces Qwikster.
• September 2011: Reed Hastings Apologizes.

It’s getting old, really, and Netflix has declined since faster than it has ever grown.  Their shares traded around $75 for the first time in 18 months, a 36% plunge Tuesday that continues a dramatic tumble that has erased about $12 billion from the company’s market value in just 104 days.  Read the rest of this entry » Is Netflix done?

Netflix has abandoned their Qwikster plans, and will now be on the Vizio tablet a few weeks after Hulu was added for additional movies & television streaming options. I had figured Netflix was already on the tablet as part of the original build, since the Vizio televisions with VIA (Vizio Internet Applications) all come pre-loaded. But now, it’s there.

However it’s too bad nearly everyone canceled their Netflix accounts due to the 60% price hike; and if you did keep Netflix around, I hope you’re enjoying fewer streaming options than you previously had.

Unfortunately, I’m one of those account cancelers. And to boot, they completely cleared my DVD and instant queues, leading to my decision to likely never come back.

So here we are, with Netflix plunging as I blogged before, Reed Hastings is flailing to keep customers. Oops. Reed sent me a personal e-mail (and to millions of others, I might add =p) trying to explain his vision in raising prices 60%, and then clearing out your DVD queues and forcing you to utilize a new website, Quikster.

Dear Jason,

I messed up. I owe you an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.  Read the rest of this entry » Netflix apologizes

Boy, am I sure glad I dropped my Netflix account earlier this month. Once Netflix announced its new pricing structure and plan options, their users understandably became disgruntled. So much, that the Netflix stock has dropped so rapidly that shareholders are wanting out, and fast!

You can see the Netflix stock dropping in real-time, right here! Google Finance – Netflix

Since then, Netflix has decided to split off into two separate companies — Netflix, which will handle the less demanding video streaming service, and Qwikster, which will handle the DVD portion. They have attempted to put out a fire of controversy over how its recent price changes by offering an apology and new name for its DVD-by-mail business. The wholly owned subsidiary Qwikster will add games to what it rents.

No more immediate price changes will result. The price changes announced over the summer effectively hiked subscribers who get both mail and streaming videos by 60 percent. Instead of one $9.99 charge, they now had two $7.99 charges. The company said this month that it lost 1 million customers since the price change, about 4 percent of its total. Netflix stock has plunged 19 percent since the subscriber loss was disclosed. The DVD unit chief Andy Rendich will be CEO of Qwikster.

The businesses will have separate websites and customers will be billed separately for each. “It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes,” Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings said in a note sent to customers. “So if you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or e-mail address, you would need to do it in two places.” What a pain in the ass.  Read the rest of this entry » Netflix introduces Qwikst...

I canceled my Netflix after their 60% rate hike last night – yesterday was the start of a new billing cycle, and that’s when my $10 became $16 (more like $17-something after tax).

So what if I like to get a DVD every few days? I can actually grab a newer movie that Netflix doesn’t place on their streaming service, and not have to deal with the stupid bandwidth ever-changing and making it look as if I’m watching a VHS tape from the 1970s.

I checked out the Hulu Plus service for the free trial week, and we ended up watching like 4 hours of Dog the Bounty Hunter. I’m considering not signing up for the monthly membership, simply due to Linda’s ability to watch some of the stupidest shows around, in a non-stop intelligence-lowering chain.

But since Hulu also has an app on my iPhone, and i have my new Vizio tablet, which is the only tablet with Hulu installed, is still worth having? We don’t have a cable television service at home; it’s streaming, or whatever movies we have stacked around.

What do you think? Do you subscribe to Hulu, or know people who enjoy paying for the service? I loved Hulu back when it was free, and I was single, with oodles of more time on my hands.

I cannot find a better reason to cancel my Netflix plan and to go with Hulu Plus for a change.

Announced this week, my plan will go from $10 to $16. While you may scoff at the $6/month ($72/year) difference, you need to realize that it’s a 60% increase. If gas rose that high per gallon that quickly, you’d be outraged.

Netflix will no longer offer a $9.99 package of DVD-by-mail and unlimited streaming, the company said in a statement today. Instead, more than 23 million subscribers will pay $15.98 monthly beginning September 1st if they choose both options, or $7.99 for just one.

The company introduced a DVD-only plan for $7.99 on July 8 for new subscribers and extended that to current customers to reflect the costs of acquiring and delivering content digitally and by mail, Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, said in an interview. Many customers want the option of streaming-only or DVD-only packages, he said. “We wouldn’t have charged this when the streaming catalog was still lean,” Swasey said. “The streaming catalog is robust to the point where a lot of people won’t want DVDs anymore.”  Read the rest of this entry » Netflix will soon charge ...

I have not had cable/satellite television at home for about a year now; Linda doesn’t subscribe, either. But why would anyone need to, with multiple sources of television and movies that stream from the internet? Live sports? Perhaps. But there are other ways to obtain that, as well…

Linda says that I’m not allowed to get a Vizio TV to match my future Vizio VIA cell phone. We’ll see about that, though! It’s already beneficial to load up a movie from Netflix streaming and to entertain her three-year-old. I’ll keep you tuned in as to who wins this fight. =P

Read the rest of this entry » Vizio adds Netflix and Vu...

I have the Flixster app on my iPhone, I wonder if I’ll soon be able to stream movie content with it, just as I can with my Netflix application!

Time Warner has purchased Flixster to be yet another competitor of Netflix. Too much of a good thing leads to numerous copycats, right? The owner of the Warner Bros. studio and the HBO cable movie service didn’t disclose what it paid for Flixster, which owns the Rotten Tomatoes movie-review site and also runs a streaming video service that has about 1,200 movies and an array of TV shows.

By comparison, Netflix has more than 20,000 movies and shows available for streaming. Time Warner said it plans to position Flixster as a tool for people to access digital copies of content they buy.

Amazon announced earlier that it’s allowing free movie streaming to its Amazon Prime members — those who pay $79 yearly for free 2-day shipping on qualified purchases. I mentioned last week on Redbox looking for a streaming partner. Do you think this is more or less likely the two hook up?

The initiative pits Amazon head-to-head with Netflix, which charges $7.99 a month for similarly unlimited streaming. The Amazon offering works out to $6.58 a month, and the shipping discounts remain the same. The discounts alone were enough to convince an estimated 4 million people to sign on to Amazon Prime, while Netflix has 20 million subscribers to its DVD and streaming business.

This means Amazon wins on price. However, their library is how large? As reported, 5000 movies and TV shows. Let’s compare that to Netflix, who now offers 11,563 streaming titles, including 1,587 TV show seasons and compilations, not episodes. If you want to be remove the ambiguity of TV shows and look at movies alone, that means they offer six times more titles than Amazon.

Also, Netflix has more hardware support. Everything that supports Amazon, also has Netflix built in. However Netflix also controls the gaming console network, with the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Ninteno Wii.; plus your Iphones / iPads / iPods, and plenty of internet-ready televisions and Bluray players with Netflix applications built in.

This is something I meant to post on a few days ago. Oops. :)

In a meeting with analysts, Redbox President Mitch Lowe reaffirmed the Coinstar-owned company’s plans to launch a Netflix “Watch Instantly” competitor this year. Coinstar CEO Paul Davis first confirmed the forthcoming service last year during an earnings call, though he would not specify whether the company’s Internet streaming service would utilize an all-you-can-eat pricing model or and a la carte model. Lowe has now confirmed that the service will be subscription-based, but he did not indicate price points for the service.

Redbox still has not revealed a partner for its upcoming streaming service, though rumors suggest Amazon may be the most likely candidate. Amazon already has some streaming-ready content, and this could be a nice pickup for both companies, and actually place a worthy competitor against Netflix (which I have nothing against, mind you).