I'm disappointed by the remarks in this thread that don't give the Netflix team credit for understanding their customer base. The CEO gives a credible rationale for the split: two different kinds of business. DVDs for the long tail, streaming for convenience.
Given their machine learning and rating expertise, I bet their analytics gave them a good understanding of just how different the two mediums are. I'll bet people's streaming preferences are rather different than their DVD preferences. Probably so much so that there's less predictive value across mediums than some people in this thread seem to expect.
> I'll bet people's streaming preferences are rather different than their DVD preferences.
I'll bet they're virtually identical. Think of all their customers that have both streaming and DVD plans. What movies are going to be on their DVD queues? The ones that aren't available for streaming. Nobody puts a movie into their DVD queue because they want to wait two days before they watch it.
You're right, there is a constraint for most rational customers:
X is in streaming => X is not in DVD queue
The thing is, the set of stuff available for streaming is not very large compared to the set of stuff on DVD. So the applicability of the constraint is small.
And, I think all the constraint tells you is, don't suggest titles that are available on streaming for someone's DVD queue. I think affirmative suggestions are much more interesting.
To me, your idea that people's streaming preferences are "virtually identical" to their DVD preferences seems like you didn't mean it seriously. Hyperbole?
My own streaming habits are totally different from my DVD habits, not only due to limited availability of streaming titles, but also due to ingrained expectations. It's kind of like TV versus movies.
I'm disappointed by the remarks in this thread that don't give the Netflix team credit for understanding their customer base. The CEO gives a credible rationale for the split: two different kinds of business. DVDs for the long tail, streaming for convenience.
Given their machine learning and rating expertise, I bet their analytics gave them a good understanding of just how different the two mediums are. I'll bet people's streaming preferences are rather different than their DVD preferences. Probably so much so that there's less predictive value across mediums than some people in this thread seem to expect.