Fly or Die: How Long Is Qwikster For This World?

If you get your DVDs from Netflix, soon the name on the familiar red envelope will be Qwikster. But how long is Qwikster for this world? In this episode of Fly or Die, John Biggs and I dig into the pros and cons of the service.

Earlier this week, Netflix announced it will be separating its DVD-by-mail service from its streaming movie service. The DVD-by-mail business will be renamed Qwikster and include videogames. The streaming business will keep the Netflix brand. Customers can still subscribe to both, but in my mind Netflix is effectively hastening the death of its DVD business by making it inconvenient to manage both services. Instead of one site and one queue of movies and TV shows, the two services will require different accounts. Netflix is really forcing customers to choose which service they want and it is hoping that they choose the streaming one.

All of this is going on while Dish Network is trying to revive Blockbuster, which now will offer its own streaming-plus-DVD service to Dish subscribers called BlockBuster Movie Pass. (Which brand do you think is stronger? Take our poll).