Netflix versus blockbuster versus video on demand

So which of the two provides you more entertainment bang for your buck? Funny that Netflix sort of did the same to them. User Friendly Once you become a member for Netflix, all you have to do is go online to watch unlimited movies or shows.

Internet Netflix's lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck One year ago tomorrow, CEO Reed Hastings took the first of a series of missteps that angered customers and nearly derailed his company.

Current and former employees disclose what went wrong.

Influential voices at the company departed just before Netflix embarked on a doomed attempt to spinoff DVD operations. In the spring ofHastings, Netflix's widely admired chief executive, held a meeting with his management team and outlined his blueprint to jettison Netflix's DVD operations.

The changes would take place in September. Jonathan Friedland, the new vice president of global corporate communications who had joined Netflix just a few months earlier, asked whether customers on tight incomes might object to the price hike, according to people at Hastings' meeting.

Hastings argued that Netflix was a great bargain. He said he knew that some customers would complain but that the number would be small and the anger would quickly fade. The price hike and the later, aborted attempt to spin off the company's DVD operations enraged Netflix customers.

Netflix vs. Blockbuster - Video - CNET

The company lostsubscribers, its stock price dropped 77 percent in four months, and management's reputation was battered.

To Hastings' credit, what he wanted to do made sense. The DVD's best days are behind it. Video streamed via the Internet is slowly replacing the physical disc, and betting a business on a dying product is never a great idea.

So Hastings wanted to get ahead of the curve and focus on streaming, to disrupt his own business before someone else did it for him. It was aggressive, far-sighted, and very much in character. Hastings is someone who knows a thing or two about disrupting businesses.

Netflix, after all, is the company that drove the giants of video rental out of the sector with a simple premise: A simple-to-use Web site that delivers DVDs right to your doorstep.

He became one of those executives with the "visionary" label, who can predict where a market is going before it happens, and was asked to join the board of directors of two of the most important companies in tech, Microsoft and Facebook. But even visionaries can misread their customers when they are blinded by their past success.

Leading up to the first anniversary of the Netflix meltdown, CNET interviewed former and current Netflix employees to find out how a series of missteps turned into a lost year, and whether it has rebounded from those self-inflicted wounds.

Most asked to remain anonymous.

Netflix's lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck - CNET

Netflix declined to comment for this story.But they're two very different offerings: Netflix is an "all you can eat" plan that offers thousands of movies and TV shows for a flat monthly rate, whereas Blockbuster is a pay-per-view video-on.

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Netflix versus Blockbuster versus Video-on-Demand Case Analysis by Ken Akerman Strategic Issues in the Case Founded in , Netflix is an online DVD rental service whose strategy and market success were predicted on providing an expansive selection of DVDs, an easy way to choose movies, and fast, free delivery via postal mail.

The idea that computers are people has a long and storied history.

It goes back to the very origins of computers, and even from before. There's always been a question about whether a program is something alive or not since it intrinsically has some kind of autonomy at the very least, or it wouldn't be a program.

Watching TV and movies in the modern world is a delicate balancing act among convenience, price and morality. For example: Is it OK to skimp on subscription fees by building a vast library of.

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