Netflix Revisited

Yes, I still stand by my previous assessment that Netflix' Canadian selection has, shall we say, plenty of room for improvement. I recently took a look at my Canflix rental history and did a search on Netflix for all the movies I've watched via Canflix. Only about 10% of the movies I've watched over the past year are currently available for streaming on Netflix. But, when trying to see what Netflix had available, I eventually looked at it from a different angle, that of TV shows, rather than movies. And I actually found that they had several TV shows I was interested in watching, that Canflix didn't have. So I took a little closer look and did some more math to see if it was worth it after all for me to give them a try.

How Not to Launch a New Service

Earlier this week, Netflix launched their Internet streaming based video rental service in Canada. And boy is this one launch they really bungled for a variety of reasons. If you don't already know, Netflix is a wildly popular American “DVD-rental-by-mail” company that has gotten to be very popular, and they also have a service where subscribers can skip the mailing of DVDs and stream the video directly off the internet.

First of all, they launched with a significantly poorer video selection than everyone was expecting. More on that later.

Secondly, they hired paid extras to pose as enthusiastic Netflix fans in downtown Toronto. That didn't go over too well once word got out.

Thirdly, their CEO insulted his fellow Americans during an interview about the Canadian launch. When asked whether their American subscribers would be upset about the Canadian price being lower than the US price, he responded, “How much has it been your experience that Americans follow what happens in the world? It's something we'll monitor, but Americans are somewhat self-absorbed.”