Netflix has finally caved on one of its most criticized features: the previews that automatically play while browsing for something to watch.
And they’ve made the process pretty painless, too.
Just sign in to your Netflix account from a web browser, click on “manage profiles” and then choose the profile you want to update. Deselect “autoplay previews while browsing on all devices” and you’re set.
While you’re there, you can also stop another form of autoplay. When one episode of a show ends, Netflix will automatically play the next one. Deselecting “autoplay next episode in a series on all devices” will put an end to that.
Twitter users savored the long-awaited victory over autoplay:
I know it's been a crazy year already. But today you can hold your loved ones close and tell them we did it. @netflix is finally allowing us to turn off autoplay previews while browsing. pic.twitter.com/KrnagqiLDA
In tribute to Netflix turning off autoplay on previews I'm going to start screaming constantly, all the time, ignoring any attempts to stop me, and then demand praise when I finally FINALLY decide to stop.
Netflix Announces Price Changes With Press Release
The story of how Netflix ticked off its customers more than just about any company in America that didn't spill an inconceivable amount of oil in the Gulf of Mexico begins with a rather innocuous press release. Rather than contact their users about the price hike themselves, Netflix first put out this release and let the news outlets disperse the story of the pricing overhaul for them (they later sent emails, but after everyone had already heard about the price hike elsewhere). The change: Netflix eliminated the $9.99 1-DVD-at-a-time + unlimited streaming plan in favor of two separate plans: $7.99 for 1-DVD-at-a-time, and $7.99 for unlimited streaming, with no discount for combining the two. And thus the rage began to form: Netflix allowed the news media to notify customers of its price hike. The consumers did not shoot the messenger, however; rather, they approached, fully-loaded, the corporate entity they saw as the villains, as Netflix was about to discover...
Netflix Blog Post Trumpets "Lowest Prices Ever", Attempts To Whitewash Price Hike
On the Netflix blog, Jessie Becker, the VP of Marketing for Netflix, pens a post that attempts to spin the price hike as a benefit for the consumer rather than a move that makes financial sense for the company. Among other things, Becker sells the $7.99 DVD-only plan as the company's "lowest prices ever" for unlimited DVDs by mail; it is true that $7.99 for unlimited DVDs one-at-a-time is Netflix's cheapest plan ever, but it does not anticipate the outrage that will accompany the streaming option being decoupled from physical DVD plans, nor does it address the surprise, unapologetic nature of the announcement. Netflix users indeed feel surprised and betrayed, and those surprised and betrayed Netflix users take to the Internet and phone lines to let their formerly beloved company know how they feel about its "lowest prices ever"...
Netflix Ignores #dearnetflix And Blog Comment Overflow
Hell hath no fury like a Netflix consumer scorned. #dearnetflix trends on Twitter for days, as angry Twitter users co-opt the hashtag to write angry 140-character missives to Netflix; meanwhile, below VP of Marketing Jessie Becker's blog post on the Netflix blog, the comments section reaches its 5,000 post capacity within hours. Users take to the company's Facebook page to complain. CNET counts 9,000 comments in the first eight hours after the announcement alone. Netflix does not immediately respond to the Twitter hashtag, the 5,000 blog comments, nor the Facebook hysteria. A spokesman does eventually react the next day, however, with one of the most out-of-touch, silver-spoon PR snafus of the year...
Netflix Brushes Aside Criticism, Says That For Most People The Price Increase Costs "A Latte Or Two"
When Netflix finally responded to the tens of thousands of tweets and comments condemning what most saw as a money-grab by the company (with many referring to Netflix CEO Reid Hastings as "Greed" Hastings), it did so through company spokesman Steve Swasey the following morning. Rather than apologize, Swasey seemed to make things worse, brushing aside criticism with this much-quoted gem: "We knew there would be some people who would be upset. To most people, it's a latte or two." A general swell of populist outrage forms. Measuring money in terms of lattes? During a recession? Surely Steve Swasey and Netflix could not be so out-of-touch. And yet the next day--apparently going for the world record in sticking one's foot in one's mouth--Swasey followed up his forehead-slapper of a latte comment with what I will charitably call a "joke": "I made a comment to someone, on background, that the $6 difference between the old and new prices is the equivalent of a couple of cups of latte. And that's gained a lot of traction. I've received a bunch of hate mail, because people thought Netflix was being insensitive to people who don't drink latte. That's not the case at all. I'm not a coffee drinker, and my wife drinks regular joe." Yikes. These stand as the most notable and widely circulated official Netflix reactions to the price hike.
Netflix Twitter Account Goes Silent
Wouldn't you think that if your company was trending on Twitter for several days that you would tweet something about it? If you said 'yes,' then you aren't Netflix, whose main Twitter account went totally silent for the week after it tweeted the good news about its new pricing plans.
Netflix Becomes More Hated Than Blockbuster, Stands By Price Hike
Netflix becomes a more hated company than would-be competitor Blockbuster overnight. It drops from an excellent score of 39.1 approval (out of 100) down to a -6 disapproval, into a virtual tie with Blockbuster. Redbox sees a surge in consumer approval following the Netflix announcement; even DirecTV, which was named one of the 16 worst companies in America by the blog Consumerist last year, holds a solid brand reputation lead over the once-mighty Netflix. "About 70-75 percent [of respondents to the survey] are angry and are going to cancel their subscriptions," Ted Marzilli of BrandIndex predicted. "A lot of people are acting emotionally, but whether they actually cancel their subscriptions" is another question, he said.
Netflix Outclassed And Outmaneuvered By Taco Bell?
When I asked Marzilli to name a company that had gone through a similar PR disaster or sudden drop in consumer approval, he offered Taco Bell as a close comparison point. When the fast food giant was sued for misleading the public about the percentage of beef in its meat mixtures in January 2011, customers were disgusted with Taco Bell, and its approval score dropped about 45 points like Netflix's has. But according to Marzilli the company managed to elevate its public esteem to its previous levels quickly thanks to some savvy PR: "Taco Bell recovered in 3-5 weeks, they responded in a week or so, and they responded convincingly. This is a best-case scenario [for Netflix]; there might be some lingering resentment." How long this resentment lingers will determine Netflix's fate...
Netflix Loses Your Bags (Or Worse)
Marzilli offered another analogy for the Netflix outrage: When we fly, and an airline loses our bags, or makes us sit on the runway for an hour, or delays us overnight, we tend to get incredibly angry with the carrier and promise to ourselves that we'll never use that airline again. But when the time rolls around to purchase a new flight, sometimes the airline that has wronged us is the best and cheapest option; so we swallow our pride and forget our past misery and sign up for a second round with that airline. Whether Netflix's irate consumer base similarly forgets its temporary fury and returns to the online rental giant, or whether it stays mad and holds a grudge remains to be seen. Marzilli expects Netflix to eventually return to its pre-price hike heights, though perhaps not as quickly as Taco Bell did. Barring a mass exodus to its severalcompetitors, Netflix should stay financially healthy enough to survive and even thrive (despite an ugly earnings report for its 2011 Q2); whether or not it ever becomes the darling of video-renting consumers, however, is still, to use yet another movie title, up in the air.
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![Netflix becomes a more hated company than would-be competitor Blockbuster overnight. It drops from an excellent score of 39.1 approval (out of 100) down to a -6 disapproval, into a virtual tie with Blockbuster. Redbox sees a surge in consumer approval following the Netflix announcement; even DirecTV, which was <a href="http://consumerist.com/2011/03/worst-company-in-america-sweet-16-bank-of-america-vs-directv.html" target="_hplink">named one of the 16 worst companies in America by the blog Consumerist last year</a>, holds a solid brand reputation lead over the once-mighty Netflix. "About 70-75 percent [of respondents to the survey] are angry and are going to cancel their subscriptions," Ted Marzilli of BrandIndex predicted. "A lot of people are acting emotionally, but whether they actually cancel their subscriptions" is another question, he said.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/iYLcRA5s_ECY78cCKzVWlg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5bb387621f0000390123e636.jpg)
![When I asked Marzilli to name a company that had gone through a similar PR disaster or sudden drop in consumer approval, he offered Taco Bell as a close comparison point. When <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/taco-bell-beef-lawsuit_n_813185.html" target="_hplink">the fast food giant was sued for misleading the public about the percentage of beef</a> in its meat mixtures in January 2011, customers were disgusted with Taco Bell, and its approval score dropped about 45 points like Netflix's has. But according to Marzilli the company managed to elevate its public esteem to its previous levels quickly thanks to some savvy PR: "Taco Bell recovered in 3-5 weeks, they responded in a week or so, and they responded convincingly. This is a best-case scenario [for Netflix]; there might be some lingering resentment." How long this resentment lingers will determine Netflix's fate...](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/SzOiRaHdy_1rpF1qI8B4ZA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5bb38763240000500055e58a.jpg)
