No More Qwikster, Today or Ever Again!!

In a surprising reversal by Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, he’s announced that the DVD split from Netflix would not, repeat NOT be happening. Following the recent, very bold and commercially unpopular changes to Netflix, Hastings has decided to nix the idea of the Streaming/DVD split and instead keep things just as they are now. Whew…that makes me feel better, but has the damage already been done? 

While many fans, customers and stock holders will agree the distension between Netflix came after the first rate hike (over 60% if you need a reminder), Netflix themselves admitted that they had moved too fast trying to spin-off and start up Qwikster.”We underestimated the appeal of the single web site and a single service,” Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, said in a telephone interview and quickly added: “We greatly underestimated it.”

The beauty of the initial model is obvious; one stop shopping and VARIETY. Going the “separate ways” route would serve nothing but to alienate fans, even those who stayed on and were willing to pay a little more. Mr Swasey went on to say that “Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that. 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.” So I guess it’s ironic, in regards to that comment, that the spin-off company was to be called Qwikster, don’t ya think?

For those of you needing a little more closure, have a look at what Hastings had to say while he tries to appease (and keep) fans/subscribers in his official statement (which like last time was sent to the email address of all subscribers):

Short but sweet and more importantly that keeping streaming and DVDs under one roof, Hastings is offering something intangible; security. Security in the sense that the brand you’ve come to know and love will be the brand you wanted it to be. And it looks like they’re making some swift steps to make up for the content loss in February when they make their split from Starz and their 1000+ title catalog. Although, those of you who were looking forward to getting some video games through Qwikster there has been no word as to whether or not they will or will not be offered in the future.

What say you Netflix fans? Is this good news for the might Netflix? Are you happy they’ve retained their sanity? Or are you just glad you don’t have to have two accounts now??