Sorry DVDs, Streaming is the Future
Netflix is undergoing some major changes. Along with losing over one million customers, the company is hiking prices and setting a plan in motion that will soon kill off its DVD mailing services. The millions of customers who joined Netflix for the DVD service and the millions who still primarily rely on mailed DVDs for their entertainment intake may have to start adjusting their home network services soon. The push towards online streaming will bring with it new tech support issues. It will also force many customers to upgrade their home networks to meet the demands of online streaming.
The harbinger of phasing out the DVD mailing service came early this year when Netflix announced that customers would no longer have the “Add to DVD Queue” option from streaming devices. Netflix cited a vague tech support related issue to justify the change. Still, customers didn’t buy the tech support reasoning. It was clear that Netflix was trying to start limiting customer interaction with DVD selection.
Then, last summer, the company announced a price hike that outraged subscribers and everyone else alike! Again, Netflix cited tech support issues and a desire to focus on its online streaming services as justification. Many customers were then forced to choose only one of the two services to avoid paying more.
For many, the choice continues to be difficult because online streaming can take a toll on home networks. Many home network services set limits on the amount of data usage, becoming slower when such limits are reached. Alternatively, some home networks simply do not offer enough connection speed to stream movies at high quality. Sometimes users have the option of upgrading their home networks by paying more or changing their home network service provider, but who wants to have to pay more just to accommodate Netflix? Yet according to SplatF.com, Netflix realizes that these are short-term tech support issues that will disappear with time. Home networks are on their way to becoming incredibly powerful, and when that happens, speed related tech support will become obsolete—for a few years at least.
Netflix’s DVD service requires less tech support than the streaming one. Perhaps the most common tech support problem that comes up with the DVD service is a scratched disc, and the solution to that is imply getting a different disc. However, given the long-term advantages of only providing a streaming service, it looks like Netflix is willing to deal with some temporary transitional tech support issues.
Netflix keeps citing tech support issues and practicality behind its (now defunct) plan to split its streaming and DVD mailing services, limiting customer access to DVD queues to the computer interface, and its price hikes, but customers aren’t buying it. It seems that the days when the public bent over backwards to accommodate capitalist growth are dying out. People realize that Netflix changes have nothing or little to do with tech support, and plenty to do with profit, and many of them are taking their business elsewhere.
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Filed under: Internet Security, networks, online support, rescuecom, tech support