Less than a month ago, Netflix announced that it would be separating its streaming video business from its DVD mail order rental subscription division. The DVD business would have been renamed as Qwikster with customers forced to use two different web sites and two different logins. They would also see two different charges on their credit cards if they still wanted to get both DVDs and streaming video and TV shows. That plan immediately got slammed by a number of angry Netflix customers who were still smarting from Netflix"s earlier decision to separate the pricing for both services, effectively raising the price for customers who still wanted both.
This morning, Netflix has announced that it is backtracking on its Qwikster plans. Its official blog states, "It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs. This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster. While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes." There is no word on whether or not Netflix will still add a console game mail order subscription service. It had announced plans to add that feature when it first announced its Qwikster plans.
This backtracking by Netflix is just the latest in the series of apparently missteps by the once untouchable company. In addition to the price changes that went into effect in September, it was revealed that it will be losing its lucrative agreement with the Starz cable TV network to stream its movies and TV shows on Netflix after the end of February 2012.