Los Gatos, Calif. – Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings announced in a
blog over the weekend that the company will be splitting its DVD-by-mail
business off into a separate unit called Quikster.
The move comes as the company’s previously announced policy to
separate billing for its streaming-video service from the DVD-by-mail business,
while boosting the fee for by-mail rentals services, takes effect.
The formal split of the business operations will result in two
separate websites and two different charges on customer’s bills.
With the change, Qwikster will also begin to add video game
rentals for an extra charge, while Netflix will substantially increase the
amount of available streaming content.
to Netflix customers for any appearance that the company lacked any
respect or humility in the way it announced the separation of DVD and streaming.