Netflix CEO forecasts steady decline in DVD subscribers
Call it the long goodbye.
On Wednesday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings his company expected the number of Netflix DVD subscribers to聽"decline聽steadily for every quarter, forever," as more users turn to streaming video. Hastings, who was speaking to reporters during a conference call, hastened to add that Netflix would keep聽the DVD portion of its business "stable," and "very high functioning," at least for the foreseeable future.聽
In the meantime, according to All Things D, Netflix will bulk up its selection of streaming video, and continue to add new unique online content, such as the forthcoming series "House of Cards." In other words, as Peter Kafka of All Things D , Netflix will become "a聽premium cable channel that gives subscribers lots of viewing choices 鈥� including some stuff they can鈥檛 see anywhere else 鈥� but not聽unlimited听肠丑辞颈肠别蝉."听
There's certainly room for that kind of service, Kafka adds: "a聽maverick Internet video service that could upend all of Hollywood and the TV industry sounds pretty exciting." Netflix, of course, weathered its share of woes last year, including a major dust-up over rate hikes and the rushed introduction of a rental service called Qwikster. Considering Hastings' pessimism toward discs, it's no wonder that Netflix tried to break off from DVD rentals and push that leaky boat out to sea. Of course, its current customers hated that plan, so Netflix later cancelled it.
But this week, the company posted some good news: During the last quarter of 2011, Netflix signed up 610,00 new US customers, almost making up for the 800,000 lost after the summer price hike 鈥� and bringing the total Netflix membership to 24.4 million. That was enough to beat analyst expectations, and give a nice bump to Netflix stock, Bloomberg News and the Washington Post 迟辞诲补测.听
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