Los Gatos, Calif. – Following significant outside criticism and
conjecture,
CEO Reed Hastings
revealed in a weekend blog that the company will not spin off its DVD-by-mail
service into a separate company after all.
The new DVD rental entity, which was to have been called
Qwikster,
was announced in a earlier blog by Hastings as part of a mea culpa to customers
for failing to adequately communicate its revised business intentions.
Then, in an sudden about-face, Hastings said in a posting on the
company’s web site this weekend that, “It is clear that for many of our members
two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix
as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.”
“This means no change: one website, one account, one password …
in other words, no Qwikster,” he continued.
The previously raised fees for the DVD-by-mail component will,
however, remain in place, as announced last July, but Hastings added: “We are
now done with price changes.”
Hastings reminded that Netflix continues to improve its
subscription streaming move and TV show service and has added number partners
and content franchises in recent weeks.
“We value our members, and we are committed to making Netflix the
best place to get movies & TV shows,” he concluded.
