Digital News Report – Netflix’s plan to split their mailed DVD rental service into a separate service at Qwikster.com has been halted. The idea was to have the mailed DVD rental service move to Qwikster.com website with the instant streaming video to remain at Netflix.com.
Prior to this idea to split the services, Netflix had doubled the monthly subscription cost to customers who wanted to continue to have both instant and mailed DVD rentals. This alone got customers steaming mad, with some quitting the service and others picking one service over the other.
The Netflix stock was tumbling after these changes were being implemented. With the announcement of the DVD rental service to remain at Netflix.com, the stock was at $111.69 per share during after hours today. Compare this to September 14, 2011, the closing price was $208.71. On September 18, 2011, the company announced the news of Qwikster.com in a blog post, which prompted stock prices to plummet.
Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings, said in a statement today that the company moved too fast with the changes that they wanted to accomplish.
The company announced today that they would keep DVD and streaming video rental services under one brand and at Netflix.com.
By: Tim Edwards
Business Reporter