

Qwikster: Netflix's Attempt At Resisting The Borg - chrisleydon
http://clydn.com/53

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bradleyland
What Netflix is missing here is that consumers are buying content; not DVD-by-
mail; not streaming service. Some customers aren't streaming service
candidates because they don't have the home networking infrastructure to make
it work. Some customers would prefer to be streaming-only customers, but they
can't get the content they want through the streaming service alone. Combining
these two services has generated the mass market appeal that Netflix has
capitalized on.

We (my household) are about to embark on a study of all the content we've
watched through Netflix in the last year. I'm going to compile a list of every
movie we've watched to see which titles are available streaming, and which are
available only on DVD. I'm even going to give Netflix the benefit of using
their streaming catalog as it exists today, rather than trying to back-date it
(not sure I could do that if I tried). I have a suspision that the majority of
the content we watch is available on DVD-by-mail only.

If that turns out to be the case, I have an important message for Netflix: If
you want me to be your customer, it is _your_ responsibility to deliver the
content I want. Don't force me to choose between two arbitrary delivery
mechanisms for your own reasons. I understand that Netflix has their own
internal business agenda, but let's not forget who pays the bill each month.

~~~
chrisleydon
I look forward to hopefully knowing what you've discovered! It'll be an
interesting study, I'm sure, and I'm intrigued as to how it goes. Best of luck
with it!

~~~
bradleyland
I'm going to work this up in to a blog post, but here's what I've got so far:

<http://i.imgur.com/o5FU7.png>

Unfortunately, we cancelled our streaming subscription, so I can't actually
see my streaming history. The only streaming title I recall watching in the
last year was "God Grew Tired of Us". The other films either weren't available
as streaming titles when we rented them, or we (my girlfriend manages the
queue) weren't aware that they were available instant at the time of
scheduling.

As you can see, the vast majority of the content we watch isn't available
through a streaming subscription. If Netflix wants me to be a streaming
customer, then they should work on getting this content available through
their streaming service.

