Let's be clear about the Qwikster announcement. They moved forward with moving physical discs to a separate company because of the overwhelming number of subscribers who have moved to streaming only.
A year ago, Netflix was a great deal. For 8.99, you get one movie at a time along with a streaming service that has mostly old movies and tv shows. As a bonus it's awesome. You'd have to be a jerk to complain about it.
But a couple months back, they say they're splitting the services. 8 bucks each for 1 dvd and streaming. Suddenly, nothing seems like that great of a deal. 8 a month for just a dvd means we've lost all the extras, and all that value has disappeared. I switched to streaming only, like most people.
This isn't an indication that physical media is done. This isn't a critique of the postal service. This is us saying that after we've grown accustomed to the value you once provided, backing out on it feels like a huge downgrade, and given the choice of one or the other, most will go with streaming for the simple fact that we can get a hell of a lot more.
I was one of the people on Twitter after they doubled the price saying #boycottnetflix. The point was for them to lower the price. Instead they just took a major hit in losing subscribers and now they feel like shipping out dvds is a part of the past, terrified of becoming the next AOL.
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Kiwi