Friday, May 12, 2006

Why Mark Glasser Cancelled Netflix

Mark Glasser, PBS blogger and "new media expert," writes:
"Sometimes I’m not the earliest adopter of new technology trends. I got a cell phone much later than my friends. I got Windows 98 in the year 2000. I got a DVD player only a few years ago, and only recently got a digital video recorder (DVR).

But perhaps I can be an “early opt-out’er,” a person who’s early to drop a technology that doesn’t serve them. In this case, the service is Netflix..."
Read more of Why I Cancelled Netflix, by Mark Glasser.

4 comments:

  1. I'm in the same boat. Used to be a heavy Netflix user when I was in college. However, now with a lot of time traveling and what time I do have being valuable, I find the Starz movie package is a lot better return for $11.99/mon on top of my satellite package. Find myself watching four or five movies in a weekend, non-stop, and the flowing stream is a lot easier to deal with than that "movie dread" of knowing a movie is sitting there and costing you. I might go back to Netflix for a month a year to rent some of those movies that never seem to surface elsewhere, but after two years of being on Netflix there are not a lot of movies I desire that I haven't seen.

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  2. Sorry, but pan-and-scan movies on Starz are no substitue for Netflix. Obviously Mr. Glasser is no film buff.

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  3. I think his critique is actually just complaining. He says "But I noticed that my three DVDs from Netflix tend to sit around and gather dust week by week, to the point where it doesn’t make financial sense to spend about $20 per month to watch three DVDs."

    He isn't letting this service work for him, and then he blame the service. $11.99 + tax for 4 DVD's (2 at a time) mailed to his door, with return postage-- that's the plan for him, and what's not to like about that? So he still has to go to the video store--big deal!

    Bottom line is that Netflix offers movies for movie lovers, and you have access to all the best of cable and the networks--DVD's you won't likely be able to rent in his local mall. When you add in the savings in time and gas and hassle, plus all the tools at the site, it seems, pardon me, that he is chattering without cause. Netflix, in my opinion, is one of the best deals, and one of the best sites to be found anywhere on the web.

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  4. I have to agree with most of the comments so far...he isn't letting the service work for him and he's not a film buff. In addition, the "supporting the local video store" is great if you live in a large contemporary metropolitan area--like San Francisco. But if you live in the sticks, there's only a couple mom-n-pop video stores (and if it doesn't contain Bruce Willis, Will Smith, or Mickey Mouse--or their related genres, you're out of luck), and then there's Schlockmuster, which has its own stocking peculiarities. This is even more of a concern when you can't walk "down the hill" to the video store and live miles away. After awhile, late fees, et al, are inevitable. Netflix might not be for everyone, but it works far better than some would like to give it credit for.

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