Temis the Vorta wrote:
This is not a customer service issue so much as a brand maintenance issue. Netflix should have been building a brand image like this: "We're a cool Silicon Valley tech company, and we're just like you! We're not like those soulless greedy bastards in Hollywood who want to screw both of us over. We've got your back. Let's fight them together!"
WHY didn't they do that? It would be the easiest brand building exercise ever! They would simply be tapping into already widespread resentments against Hollywood - it's always nice to have some hated entity to aim the customers' ire at, and away from you - and they wouldn't even have to lie, at least not very much (which generally is a large element of brand building).
|
Maybe because Hollywood has ALL the leverage here? Who's to say that they wouldn't pull EVERY movie/show from Netflix or demand even higher fees in response to something like that, leaving Netflix with almost no selection aside from indie productions? Unlike Apple, Netflix doesn't have a product to fall back on should the movie or music industry exercise their rights to be gigantic douchebags--Netflix would be dead instantly if Hollywood takes its ball and leaves.
Think this is unlikely and that Hollywood isn't that stupid? These are the people who think that $30 on-demand movie rentals are a good idea. Not a monthly rental service, a single movie rental. Yes, they ARE that stupid.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118034714