Movies

Netflix Spins Off DVD Service

Renamed Qwikster, will require new subscription.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings apologized Sunday night for price hikes of as much as 60 percent that have driven away a million customers—but he also announced huge changes to the DVD-by-mail and streaming-video service. In a letter posted online, Hastings said the DVD-by-mail service will be renamed Qwikster. The service, which will include an optional videogame add-on, will be accessed through Qwikster.com, where users will maintain a separate queue. Netflix will remain the name of the streaming-video service. “We realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently,” Hastings wrote.