They say that deaths happen in threes, so it's only natural that Netflix
Yes, that storm cloud above Netflix's rain-soaked head is sticking around. Fellow Fool Rich Smith alerted me late last night that the Netflix website was down. The notice read that it would be back up by 5:00 Pacific time this morning. After that, it became 9:00 a.m., then 11:00 a.m., and then 1:00 p.m. And it's now resting on a 4:00 p.m. Pacific advisory.
Now, outages like this happen all the time. In fact, when XM Satellite Radio
But Netflix is unlikely to get the same kind of halo treatment. With the company posting a churn rate of 4.6% in its latest quarter -- higher than in the previous quarter or during the same quarter a year earlier -- patrons are either quite aware of rival Blockbuster's
This isn't the best time to test that allegiance. Obviously, Netflix isn't doing this intentionally. It's just rotten luck. However, now that the company has been nudging users toward a couple of cheaper plans that provide a cap on rentals, it's going to have some pretty disappointed members who tossed a rental in the mail yesterday and were going to prioritize their online queues this morning.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is the kind of moment that galvanizes the Netflix subscriber community. However, with momentum working against the company, I don't see a good way to spin the temporary death of a popular website.
Other recent Netflix Foolishness:
- Red Mailers, Blue Investors
- Fool Video: Is Netflix in Trouble?
- Buck Back Mountain at Netflix
- Dueling Fools: Netflix
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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has been a Netflix subscriber -- and shareholder -- since 2002. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.