Gadgetory

hi I'm Bridget Carey with CNET here with senior writer Greg Sandoval who covers Netflix and it's been a year since the insanity around Netflix is price hikes and the Qwikster spin-off now you've talking to employees both past and present to give us a look into what went on behind the scenes during this trainwreck and at a once beloved tech company so how was it like getting people to talk to you about this I've been covering the speed for six years and I've never had anybody give me anything any information inside information anything like that about the company until now lots and lots of workers are angry at Reed Hastings and how he handled the Qwikster of the price hike everything last year they're very disappointed well it seems like he was just pushing through with dividing DVDs from the company starting Qwikster it's hard to believe that everyone was on board with this was this a culture where people could speak up and say hey we don't really like this idea it used to be one person described read as a happy-go-lucky guy but he changed as they became more successful read started keeping his own counsel he stopped listening to people and he pushed this thing through there were lots of people who tried to talk him out of it but he had an idea he's worried about the future right we're going to streaming and he wanted to be rid of DVDs and he wanted to do it quickly and that was it they pushed this thing through and there's nothing to indicate that it was well thought out they it looks like they just slapped it together so a year later a few days ago we hear this great news about how they have a billion hours of streaming in the month of June now of course they've also added several more areas to their subscriber list but what does that fluff announcement mean to you are they really better off now a year later they're trying to work their way back but metrics like that that's not how you measure a company like Netflix it is still the same company at its core tell us how much you're growing subscribers tell us how much it costs to obtain some of the streaming content because we know what's going up everybody knows these costs are spiking if they really want to help us understand their business they'll do that kind of stuff now they have their tail Hulu's not too far behind cable companies are the competing factor now what do they have to do to go forward here's the here's the chief challenge for Reed Hastings right now he's got to prove that he can grow his subscribers with what we as probably I don't think I'm being unfair is a very mediocre catalog right you go into the streaming and it's reruns TV reruns you have you know be title films documentaries there's nothing fresh and there's nothing new now Netflix is still very cheap there's nobody offering a better deal well people just say hey whatever he's got there I'll find something to watch because it is a lot less expensive than any cable company he's got to prove that and we're gonna see that in the next few quarters well thanks Greg for seen it I'm Bridget Carey