Netflix Toasts Itself
I was going to write something about Reed Hastings’s inane email, but Wired covered the main point, even if they did bury the lede:
However, it’s impossible to see how the split itself benefits customers. The price and plan changes that flustered many of them months ago remain in place, but the company now directs them to two web sites with two search indexes, two completely separate sets of recommendations, two entries on their credit card statements, and so forth.
When Erik Loomis (now known as the sane political blogger at LG&M) noted the issues with Netflix splitting the company way back in July, there were some objections from the Twitterati that his post didn’t address any of the reasons Netflix had to make the change,* apparently ignoring that markets have to have both a buyer and a seller to function. As “Divorced One Like Bush” recently noted, there are business strategies you can use, and there are business strategies that work against you.
But rarely does one see a company deliberately opt for a business strategy that works against them.**
*One of the more prominent of those is now staunchly defending the company’s latest CF, but did have the decency to quote a respondent: “I admire the umbrage your taking on behalf of netflix and their ungrateful customers.”
**Well, maybe not so rarely, but at least Tyco management made no secret that it was determined to enrich itself at the expense of the companies it acquired and is now spinning off.
cross-posted from Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo
Netflix was being jerked around by the content providers who played off their DVD and streaming branches. They had already agreed to delay DVD releases in exchange for streaming deals, and you can imagine what was going on in the back room dealing. They had blinked once. The content people figured they owned them, and you can imagine the list of demands. The content people don’t care about money. They care about control. A business can’t deal with religious fanatics like that.
Right now the split is a little weird, but I figure in a few months there will be apps out to deal with multiple movie sources. Think of the old Sherlock/Watson search engine aggregators, except they work with Netflix, Qwickster, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, TiVo and all the rest. You put in a list of movies you want to watch and it gives you your best option for immediate viewing or if you are willing to wait. It could even text you when something is up and coming
The advantage to the customer is that this is one less lever the content owners can use, and it will encourage powerful tools to make viewing easier and access more transparent.