Image Credit: Paul Sakuma/AP Images
In the Downward Spiral Championship Race-to-the-Bottom to decide which critically beloved media company will do more to destroy their sterling reputation in calendar-year 2011, Netflix moved several more lengths ahead of AMC and Sony today when, in the wake of the surprisingly leadfooted Qwikster launch, Reed Hastings took the stage in the middle of the f8 Keynote Speech to talk about Facebook/Netflix integration, which seemed like a readymade slam-dunk story for Netflix… until Hastings ended his speech by noting that the integration would be available pretty much everywhere except for America, thanks to a unique-to-the-US rental privacy law currently being debated by Congress. Netflix’s blog currently has a call-to-arms post asking Netflix users to call their local Congressmen.
In all likelihood, the law will be turned over — because money talks and big business owns city hall and Clay Davis needs money for his re-election campaign — but this is yet another dagger in the heart of any Netflix user. Oh well, at least Hastings name-dropped Breaking Bad a few dozen times.
Follow Darren on Twitter: @EWDarrenFranich
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None of the articles explain why you need Netflix on Facebook, other than you can click to watch with a friend. Is that something a lot of people want to do? I guess I don’t see what all the fuss is about watching movies through Facebook.
Facebook is about done anyway, so who cares.
And what will people use instead? Or will they just give up on social networking altogether?
Google+
havn’t joined it yet, but I plan to.
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Well, it *is* available in America. Last time I checked, both Canada and Latin America are part of America (the name “Latin America” should’ve been a clue).
It’s not available in the US, which is, what you meant, I know. It’s just not what you wrote.
I’m pretty sure that when Team America yelled, “America Eff Yeah!” They were just talking about the U.S. It’s often used interchangeably. There’s also a song called America the Beautiful. Oh, and it’s the American flag. I could keep going, but I think you get the point that you’re being a little too critical.
Yeah, apparently this ticks ppl off around the world, but we talk about America as a country and NORTH America and SOUTH America as continents. But I guess other people just call both continents America so they would prefer we call ourselves United Staters or something.
I’m just glad that there seems to be at least a few “Americans” smart enough to bring up some valid points in this debate. Honestly- I’m surprised when Americans know that Canada shares a border with them.
yeah, go to Canada, Mexico or Venezuela and tell the people their they are actually American. See where that gets you.
Shhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit!
This post is useless. What is the law that prevents Netflix from integrating into Facebook? How did it come about? Why does no one else have a law like this but the US? What is your perspective as an entertainment journalist (debatable at this point) on the law?
That’s what happens when you stop having news and start having blogs – finding out all that stuff takes too much time. You gotta get some kind of ‘media’ out right this second. The scary part? FB now calls somebody telling us the color of their kid’s latest poo a ‘news story.’
Lol. Being irritated by those people who post every hour was bad enough. Now their crap is being called ‘stories’? Ugh… at least I can unsubscribe them now heh.
Be nice. Darrin Franich is top-shelf. Try to give him the benefit of the doubt; I thought the story was balanced and in line with what I’d expect from an entertainment tid-bit. It wasn’t intended to be an in-depth article.
My criticism isn’t with Darrin French’s writing, which is swell. And no, it’s not fair to expect in-depth research from an article that has to come out five minutes after the event. That’s kind of my point – we need something more than blogs, and lately, we aren’t getting it, from EW or anybody else.
Sorry, Lucy. Was replying to ‘dodnarb’, who was debating the writer’s qualifications to be an entertainment journalist. I feel your pain regarding the blogs taking the place of news, and lament the loss of writing as a profession; still, Franich is one of the better writers on EW.
So? This one isn’t Netflix’s fault. And I don’t recall ever thinking to myself, “My life will be incomplete until I can have Netflix in my Facebook.”
I don’t understand why I am supposed to want to advertise to the world everything I am watching, let alone see a long feed of what other people are watching. This sounds like a ploy to undo privacy laws in order to benefit marketers.
I agree. Facebook integration with netflix really doesn’t appeal to me at all. Now netflix integration with qwikster (ie. Netflix with disks and streaming) does.
HA! I LOVE seeing Reed Hastings get the big Eff Yoo. Talk about king of the D-bags.
None of the articles explain why you need Netflix on Facebook, other than you can click to watch with a friend. Is that something a lot of people want to do? I guess I don’t see what all the fuss is about watching movies through Facebook.
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