Netflix Apologizes to Customers & Rebrands Its DVD Service

1. I found value in having the instant queue and dvd queue integrated. I could pick and choose how I wanted to watch a movie very easily. With separate queues on separate websites, not so much. It will be a royal pain.

2. I consider this another way to stealthily raise rates. Right now, I have 3 dvd's out at a time, which means I can have three (actually four) streams running at a time. Which means I can stream, at the same time my kids are streaming to their computers or iTouches. Now with separate companies, I will probably be told I have to buy some upgraded streaming ability from netflix.

Grrr. Netflix, you seem to be intentionally destroying your value. Amazon, Google, Walmart, here's your chance, because by destroying the queue and raising prices, Reed Hastings just tore down all my barrier to switching.

This whole Netflix debacle is a shame. Its one of the few web apps I don't mind paying for at all since they provide excellent value and user experience on both the DVD and streaming side of things. Hopefully they can continue to do so after the split.

Here's the message I'm getting: "We realize you didn't like the fact that we separated the two delivery methods, so we're separating the companies to make it more clear 'why' we're doing it."

I hate to be a jerk about this, but I really do not care why you're doing it. As a customer, I hate it. I really loved how I could manage my streaming and DVD queues through one website. Based on water cooler chat, lots of other people feel the same way.

Trust me, Mr. Reed. We hear your reasoning loud and clear: Netflix first, customer second.

"We realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses ..."

That may well be, from their point of view. From my point of view DVD and streaming were part of the SAME product, with DVD backing up streaming by offering what streaming didn't have.

For the amount of DVDs I had coming (1 at a time from their minimal DVD+stream deal), I can get about the same service from the local library. There are a lot of movies the library doesn't have; the same is true of Netflix.

The communication seems really bad on this. In one hand Hastings says it will open all kinds of new possibilities, but then in the next breath he's emphasizing how nothing but the logo will change. That and they sound like they're both reading from a teleprompter the whole time.

Makes me wonder if the real reason for this is to have different legal entities for negotiation or something like that.

Wow, so due to cost structure imposed by the media conglomerates, Netflix has to completely divorce the two offerings into two separate companies. Amazing.

I'm wondering if billing and or queues will exist across both?