We try to keep cursing in the headlines down a minimum in case small children or animals are toddling by an RSS feed, but seriously, Netflix’s very public business-making decisions lately have demanded a little swearing. It’s a company that started with an innovative idea, but it’s also a company that provides DVDs through the postal service and streaming video. Beyond that, it shouldn’t be rocket surgery.
Of course, maybe it’s not that the company has made a few bad decisions lately, but that so many have been broadcast or celebrated publicly before slinking back into the shadows of shame that is what’s so damning. The latest blunder disguised as a shrewd move? Netflix is responding to its stock prices by killing Qwikster before it was even implemented.
The company had intended to split their DVD and streaming services into two products, meaning that dual-users would have had to create a Qwikster account and keep up with their Netflix streaming queue. Two queues is apparently way too much for our media-addled minds (especially when you also have Get Glue and Four Square to check into). It’s excellent to see a company respond to such vehement negative customer response, but it’s also one more sign of weakness. Instead of moving forward with the service and letting customers get used to it (or, hell, even grow to like it), Netflix has admitted it was moronic by aborting it.
Hopefully this is the last bad dance step. In a short, sweet email to users, it announced that they are working on more deals with media companies – a palette cleansing statement after ripping the Band Aid that is Qwikster’s demise off of our skin. Here’s the full statement, sent to our beloved publisher:
Dear Neil “Handlebars” Miller,
It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.
This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.
While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.
We’re constantly improving our streaming selection. We’ve recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we’ve added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.
We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.
Respectfully,
The Netflix Team
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