Reed Hastings Is Leaving Netflix After 29 Years (engadget.com)
- Reference: 0181735212
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/04/17/0325238/reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years
- Source link: https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years-213136444.html
> Hastings has served as chairman of Netflix's board since 2023, a role he assumed after stepping down as co-CEO and promoting Greg Peters in his place. "Netflix changed my life in so many ways, and my all-time favorite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service," Hastings said in a statement. "My real contribution at Netflix wasn't a single decision; it was a focus on member joy, building a culture that others could inherit and improve, and building a company that could be both beloved by members and wildly successful for generations to come. A special thanks to Greg and Ted, whose commitment to Netflix's greatness is so strong that I can now focus on new things."
[1] https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years-213136444.html
[2] https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2026/q1/FINAL-Q1-26-Shareholder-Letter.pdf
Ah... (Score:1)
he's going to spend some more time with his money.
Re: (Score:1)
I think it is well-deserved. Remember, if not for him it would still be cable and rental DVDs.
Re: (Score:3)
You really think that not a single other person/company could think "hey what if we played this video over the internet instead of using physical media?"
I think it was inevitable. If Netflix didn't do it, some other startup or established company would have.
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The difficult part was to get Hollywood studios on board with streaming. So yes, I think that if not for Netflix, we would still be renting DVDs.
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You could buy Hollywood movies on iTunes before Netflix streaming even launched, and iTunes wasn't first either. Movielink launched in 2002, and it was literally a joint venture of Paramount, Sony, MGM, Universal, and Warner Bros. The studios built their own digital delivery platform years before Netflix got into streaming. It flopped, but 'getting Hollywood on board' had already happened.
Netflix pioneered plenty of things. This wasn't one of them.
Re: (Score:1)
This is not how I remember living through it. It was Blockbuster + Cable + Piracy, then Netflix appeared to challenge Blockbuster and pivoted from that to challenge Cable and being more convenient managed to also displace Piracy. Personally, I went from sailing the high seas to Netflix subscription, there weren't any in-between stops on that journey.
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I still remember the cable company knocking on my door and demanding I let them search my house as they were convinced I was stealing cable as it was unheard of being cable cutter. I told them to come back with a warrant, only to have them trespass onto my property while I was not home and wreck cable hookup, expecting I'd call them back to fix it.
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> If Netflix didn't do it, some other startup or established company would have.
The company name on the tip of your theory, was Blockbuster.
Call it the fumble of the century in media.
Re:Ah... (Score:5, Insightful)
> I think it is well-deserved. Remember, if not for him it would still be cable and rental DVDs.
The Netflix DVD service was remarkable in its time. You could get movies and shows that were so obscure it was nearly impossible to buy a copy, or find them for rent locally. I wish that they had had some way of licensing some of those older films for streaming availability. Losing that format lost a huge chunk of my interest in Netflix. Watching them slowly turn to self-created content that, frankly, sucks horribly 90-95% of the time with only the odd win here or there was painful. The best thing they have today is access to foreign created shows that you can't really access in other ways. Not that I've had my subscription for a while, as you can catch up on what they have that's worth watching in about a month of access every two years or so these days.
With a C suite departure, I expect to see what little quality is left to disappear over the next year or two. Ads in all tiers will be first. Then expect a flurry of self-made programming that's all extra low-budget, zero effort, tick the boxes trash to start flooding the interface every time you open it.
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> Ads in all tiers will be first.
This will get me to cancel after years of uninterrupted subscribing.
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I preferred Netflix from the DVD in the mail days.
They had EVERYTHING. I kept a constant flow of discs in the mail and copied all of them, building up a large library of DVDs. I recently cancelled my account because I couldn't remember the last time I searched for something I wanted to watch and they actually had it.
Streaming in the last few years has become awful. To watch one movie, you need an account with one company. To watch another, you need an account with a different company. I've cancelled al
When the rats... (Score:2)
...abandon a sinking ship
Re: (Score:2)
> ...abandon a sinking ship
hmmm..
Revenue in Billions - 33.70
Profit in Billions - 10.40
yep - sinking.....
Re: (Score:2)
The rats abandon a ship which is going to sink, not a ship that has already sank...
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nice - my previous post with facts - was deleted....
[1]https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
nice and fair on slashdot
[1] https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23967914&cid=66098382#comments
Re: (Score:2)
No, was not deleted. Some delay maybe mirroring to the replicated server you were using.
meh (Score:2)
If I had that kind of money I'd have stepped down long ago to live on a private South Pacific island with rum, hot tubs, and supermodels.
I hope ... (Score:2)
... he remembers to return all those DVDs before he leaves. Like I had to do when I cancelled my membership.
I'd leave too (Score:1)
With all the talentless purple haired activists who don't know what gender they are working there, making absolute trash content, I'd leave too.
The real gift. (Score:5, Interesting)
> "My real contribution at Netflix wasn't a single decision; it was a focus on member joy, building a culture that others could inherit and improve, and building a company that could be both beloved by members and wildly successful for generations to come.”
I’d say the real gift to Netflix consumers today, is No Fucking Ads.
Given that is now an old-fashioned outdated mentality no matter how far consumers pay to bend over and take it up the streaming pipe, I smell change coming soon.
Enshittification, is something to be expected with the departure of an executive born last century - New Profit Order
Re:The real gift. (Score:5, Insightful)
I spend A LOT of effort to make certain I see no ads. It is shocking to see how other people interact with tech. Why would anyone put up unfiltered internet is beyond me.