“Rabbit ears” is an old school baseball term used to refer to a player who hears too much of what the crowd is saying and lets it affect his performance. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings may have rabbit ears. Netflix has now cancelled its plans to spin off its DVD home delivery service from its online streaming service–plans that were just announced last month. The physical media contingent was going to be called Qwikster, with Netflix remaining your source for all things streaming, but apparently Hastings and crew heard the cacophony of consumer groans and analyst moans and they’re scrapping the idea altogether. “Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that,” Hastings said in a statement. “There is a difference between moving quickly — which Netflix has done very well for years — and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.” Moans and groans have not altered the recent price hike, however. On the company’s blog today, Hastings writes the increase was necessary, but now they’re done with price changes.
[showhide type=”pressrelease”]LOS GATOS, Calif., Oct. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) today said it will not rename its DVD-by-mail service and that its U.S. members will continue to go to the Netflix website for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.
Netflix said in a September 18 blog post that its DVD-by-mail service would operate at Qwikster.com. Instead, U.S. members will continue to use one website, one account and one password for their movie and TV watching enjoyment under the Netflix brand.
“Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that,” said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. “There is a difference between moving quickly — which Netflix has done very well for years — and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.”
Netflix today informed its U.S. members in personal emails and a post on the Netflix Blog on http://blog.netflix.com/.[/showhide]
