Quicknet Flixster?

OK, here is my bold stand on the issues with Netflix and its apparent soon-to-be companion company, Qwikster (or something like that): I am absolutely considering making no changes whatsoever.

Yes, you read that right. A quick opinion poll of the relevant persons in my household has revealed the unanimous belief that the company's decision to separate its streaming movie business from its mailed DVD business will have no impact whatsoever on current subscription plans. That's because I belong to the mailed DVD service and don't stream movies, so I don't really care what happens to that part of the service.

The hoo-ra began when the company announced it would begin charging separate fees for the streaming video service and the mailed DVDs. To receive both, people would need to pay more than they did now, and that announcement had the results one usually expects when people are asked to pay more. They calmly and reasonably researched the costs involved in producing what they consumed, realized that companies are in business to make money and that they can't pay their employees with the good feelings they would receive from giving away their services and accepted the decision that they would have to pay more for what they were getting.

I'm kidding. They started whining up a storm -- although the "they" was pretty much limited to the people who either wanted both services or were interested mostly in the streaming part. We Neandertals who insisted on receiving a physical shiny disk to offer into our DVD altar so we could commune with the spirits who lived inside the magic box in the living room were not really all that perturbed, because we were still getting what we wanted and what we paid for.

The company made things worse over this past weekend when it announced that the Netflix brand would stay with the streaming service and the mailed DVD company would be renamed Qwikster, complete with a separate website and everything. And I have to say, as long as my movie queue and subscription are ported over to the new site, I'll probably stay pretty even-tempered about the mess.

The irony is that people like me were most of the company's problem. According to this article, we cost it money and the ultimate goal of the reorganization plans should have been to get shut of us. Lots of people seem to agree that streamed content is the future and the snail-mail service has too many strikes against it to survive -- not the least of which is the looming insolvency of the US Postal Service. But the move to unload us ticked off the people it wanted to keep -- the streamers -- because they had to start paying for something they had begun to think they were entitled to get for free.

Now, will I eventually purchase streamed content? Probably -- I don't now because I don't own the right equipment and Netflix's own streaming options didn't match what I wanted to watch often enough to make me buy it. When it all eventually shakes out, then I suspect I'll be ready to make the change. Until then, I remain a calm Friar in the midst of a sea of virtual tumoil. Although I entertain a smile or two at how badly the Netflix corporate honchos -- who justify their pulling down of some pretty hefty coin by pointing to their decision-making skills, market savvy and leadership -- have stepped in the poop.