If you subscribe monthly to Netflix"s streaming movie and TV service you can watch all of the company"s vast library of titles on a wide variety of machines, from the PC to various DVD and Blu-Ray players to a number of set top boxes connected to your TV. You can also check out Netflix"s service on all three game consoles, including the Playstation 3. However the Netflix service was not accessible on the PS3 for over three weeks due to Sony"s shut down of the Playstation Network from April 20 to this past Saturday night.
Even with that long downtime, it looks like folks who used the PS3 to access Netflix might be out of luck when it comes to compensation. According to a story at GigaOM, Netflix has no plans to offer PS3 Netflix users any refunds for the downtime. That"s in stark contrast to the other streaming subscriber video service on the PS3, Hulu Plus. GigaOM reports that Hulu has confirmed that it will indeed offer its Plus monthly subscribers a credit for the Playstation Network"s downtime.
Of course, being a third party application that"s also available on a ton of other hardware platforms, it"s perhaps easy to understand why Netflix would not offer a credit to its subscribers due to the PSN shut down. However, we do have to wonder if that"s a good public relationship decision in the long run, especially since one of your biggest rivals, Hulu, is offering compensation for the PSN downtime.