[nosequel]

Most successful business don't make huge decisions like this if there wasn't a reason. And instead of speculation, we know why this split is happening. Think back with "The Social Network" was pulled from Netflix. The reason was that Netflix and Stars in their contract was limited to a certain number of viewers. In Stars' eyes, Netflix's total userbase was the number of viewers even though Stars was only concerned with streaming. So, to appease both the DVD licensing where they pay the studios per rental (and streaming shouldn't count against that) and to appease streaming licensing where they also pay by the size of the viewership (such as the case of Stars), they had no choice but to not only split the subscription model, but the company itself.

Thinking that Netflix would kill a good thing is pretty dumb and I sort of expected more from the HN audience in this case. Netflix is doing what they have to do, not what they want to do.

[yequalsx]

Your last paragraph seems to suggest that companies don't make dumb decisions by "killing a good thing". Maybe you think only Netflix doesn't make dumb decisions of this sort but there is a long history of companies making dumb decisions by killing 'a good thing'.

As stated I don't see how Netflix will survive long term.

[nosequel]

Companies in the past have definitely made dumb decisions you are right about that, but typically they don't just kill off their main cash cow for no apparent reason. That's all I'm saying. All of the "why would he do this?!?" posts are dumb for thinking that someone like the CEO of Netflix doesn't know that this would be a pretty stupid split of the business if he didn't have to do it to survive.

[iand]

Good analysis