Netflix Relaunches DVD Rental Service as Qwikster

Posted by on September 19th, 2011   Filed under: DVD and Blu-ray, Industry News, Internet
Source: Netflix

After the instant backlash from their recent decision to separate DVD and streaming services, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings returned with his tail between his legs this weekend to apologize to subscribers. In a public statement posted on The Netflix Blog, he says he messed up and that they were simply trying to evolve too quickly without communicating to their customers. He then went on to make another pretty big announcement: their DVD rental by mail service is adding video game rentals and relaunching under the name Qwikster.

Qwikster will have its own website that will look essentially the same, but it will not be connected to the Netflix site in anyway. If you choose to subscribe to both, your queue and ratings on Qwikster will be totally separate from Netflix, and there will be a separate charge on your credit card for both. However, there seems to be some confusion over this statement: “There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!).” Some people interpreted this to mean that they are rolling back the price changes that were announced in July, but the more likely situation is that they are simply not increasing the prices beyond that. Overall, this decision is a pretty mystifying, although some industry folks have speculated that it will allow Netflix to negotiate better deals with content providers. Unfortunately, it seems like a pretty crappy apology if you ask me. Check out a video explanation from Reed Hastings and new Qwikster CEO Andy Rendich after the jump.



  • Colin

    Unless they amend the compatibility of the two services, I’m canceling streaming. With the money I save, I’ll probably rent some video games or add a second disc to Qwikster.

    There just isn’t enough compelling content to justify paying for streaming as a standalone service.

  • Hugo Van Nor

    No one is ever happy. The streaming is a good service. No all the content is triple A. But, for the cost and the interesting finds. It surely makes up for it. Consider if you have HBO monthly service. It is at least 15-16 a month.

    It’s frustrating the way it was handled. But, people will get over it.

  • Matt

    I agree Hugo that the Netflix streaming service is good. Sure they don’t have the new releases available to stream, but there’s always something to watch.

    I’m also happy that they’re beefing up their TV selection.

  • It’s not about the money for me. It’s about the company and its approach. Their customer service has been terrible for years. I have DVD-only with Blu-Ray, so I’m not affected by anything but the silly name. However, making customers who have both use separate queues, ratings, and websites is just silly. The apology was pretty lame, too. I’d drop Netflix if I didn’t need their library at times. And it isn’t about the price; they’re just an awful company in terms of service.

  • bard

    I’ve been a subscriber for over one and a half years and have never had an issue with Netflix. I’m doing streaming only, and it’s fantastic. All the problems people seem to have with Netflix should be posted in /firstworldproblems.

  • there is more to this. if you live in the states and use netflix thru ur PS3 you noticed, as I, that netflix streaming recently switched from the movie tab to a TVservices type tab on the PS3?!?!?! I think this switch/separate company relates to bigger issues of “what is” a DVD movie rental vs. watching a rent movie on “what is” a TV service. Hmmmmmmmmmm

  • Curtis Williams

    Netflix is a great service, just poorly managed. About 2 years ago, their site was in top form, in my opinion. The layout was pretty perfect. They had awesome friends features which allowed you to get great recommendations from your friends. You could review movies. Also obviously both streaming and disc rentals were under one roof. But over the last two years they just keep taking the site and fucking it up left and right, removing all those features. The price hikes weren’t really crazy to me, I mean, it’s worth it for what you get. It’s all the other shit they keep screwing up which sucks.

  • MJS

    Sounds like little more than a strategy to sabotage the Disc service once and for all. “Quickster” is such a terrible name that it had to be deliberately lame. I doubt they’ll spend a penny promoting this new site or further bolstering the library, I think they just want people to forget about discs altogether. As someone who’s had access to that disc library for the better part of ten years this will make me very depressed.

    Also, they apparently didn’t bother to buy out the existing “Quickster” twitter feed: http://twitter.com/#!/qwikster

  • Justice

    It just seems so painfully obvious. Netflix is doing this for the sole purpose of SELLING what is now called Quikster. Brand recognition is one of the most important things in all of business. Why in the world would a company with such strong positive (at least until recently) public association to its name change the title of half of its business? So that when they sell it, it will not be associated with the part they want to focus on. When the buyer (I believe it will be Redbox within the next year) purchases “Quikster,” the general public will barely realize Netflix is involved at all…”Oh, they are just buying some small internet company, sounds like Napster or something.” A good chunk of dough for Netflix with none of the bad publicity or stock worry that comes from selling a part of your company. The inverse is when someone like Ford buys Jaguar. They leave the name because of the cachet it possesses. They don’t want it associated with the boring old Ford.

    It is also mind-numbingly stupid to separate the two websites. When everything is moving towards consolidation and ease of use, they want to make their customers log into two websites, manage two unconnected queues, and get billed on their credit card twice. Its like if Ebay made a whole new website for their “Buy it Now” items with a new name and no interaction with your account, searches or buying history. It defies all logic except for preparing for the above. Or maybe Hastings and Co. are way more dumb than we gave them credit for.

  • Jonny Ashley

    This seems pretty expected. It’s been clear all along that netflix wants to immerse its services completely into streaming. I think this will improve both services in the long run. Streaming will get better, and Quikster will satisfy the DVD thru mail audience. Also if one tanks or does poorly, it’s not necessarily counted as a failure for Netflix as a whole.

  • Deven Science

    Why didn’t they call it QwikFlix, to match?

  • Captain N

    This affects me none, as all I do is stream. I get a slew of content for $7 a month. I have over 300 titles on my instant queue that I still need to watch.

    The one issue I had with their DVD portion is I don’t want DVDs, just blu rays. And while you can get blu rays for a few extra bucks more, I don’t want to pay for the DVDs if I have no need for them, so I wish they offered an alternative for blu ray only. I am curious to learn more about what they have in store for the gaming rentals though.

  • Falsk

    Having been a member since 2006 all these changes are just tiring/aggravating but not enough that I’ll cancel one or the other… not yet anyway. Especially since there isn’t much of anything else to choose from. I had to laugh, though at Blockbuster’s latest tweet (death rattle?): “Dear Netflix, we’re offering special prices & 30-day trials of Blockbuster Total Access to your members #helloBlockbuster http://essn.tl/q8 “

  • Brendan

    Well, I’m currently still using both streaming and getting Blu-Ray by mail. You’d think it wouldn’t really affect me (as long as the price stays the same), but it’s going to be less convenient to have two separate accounts on two different services. You could search for a movie and either put it in the DVD queue or, if it was available to stream, watch it right away. It was also nice when I’d have something in my DVD queue that got added to the streaming library because it would automatically add that title to my streaming queue.

    I think I currently use both services enough to justify having both. Streaming has tons of episodic stuff and movies I might not watch if I had to have it sent physically. On the physical media side, I haven’t found any better way to rent Blu-Rays. Blockbuster and other video stores are closing. Sure, Redbox rents Blu-Rays, but they don’t have nearly the selection that Netflix has, and getting Blu-Rays from Redbox still isn’t as convenient as Netflix. Even if Netflix ups it’s streaming library to one day include most of the newest releases, the quality of Blu-Ray still trumps it.

    So, I’m not trying to extol the virtues of the Netflix services, but I can’t find anything comparable that gives me what I want. It’s just a shame they decided to split the business.

  • el ohroy

    Netflix has plenty of content. I don’t need new releases so much, as long as there are good foreign films and older movies to choose. And the price is fine. Their most unforgivable sin is their website design. Why? Why, why, why is it so terrible? Ridiculous side scrolling bullshit. User reviews and social networking between users removed for no plausible reason. Browsing for movies is a tiring chore, rather than a pleasure. The only thing saving them from my cancellation is instantwatcher.com.

  • This doesn’t sound like any change to their crappy plan other than spinning off a new company to cover the change it seems… And offering games of course.

    Actually, the games bit could possibly bring me back if it is a similar plan and better price than Gamefly. We’ll see…