Advanced Television

Netflix re-instates DVD-only rental

February 20, 2012

By Chris Forrester

Netflix has abandoned last summer’s ‘streaming only’ scheme, and reversed its decision to drop its mail-order DVD subscription service. It used to be that North American Netflix users could buy into their DVD rentals for $7.99 a month, or have a broadband streamed service for the same sum, or have both for $9.99.

That changed in July 2011, when Netflix separated the two systems without any discount for joint access. It said its DVD home rental scheme would morph into Qwikster, and be a totally separate system. The decision saw 800,000 US subscribers drop their service in Q3, and resulted in some considerable criticism for co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. In October, it stated that Netflix would remain the market-facing name and that Qwikster was to be abandoned.

Santosh Hedge, director of Engineering at Netflix, in a blog, stated that the DVD rental service is back up and running, and at $7.99, the ‘old’ price.

 

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