Netflix, Quikster and The Missing Piece

Today Netflix announced that they would be splitting their streaming and DVD services into two companies. The streaming service will retain the name “Netflix” and the DVD service will get the new name “Quikster”. It’s also worth noting that Quikster will also offer video games.

One victim of this change is the current user ratings feature. Moving forward Netflix and Quikster ratings will not be shared across the two services. This data is being overlooked and could be the basis of an area of growth for both companies. Ratings and reviews are a driving force behind the success of websites like Amazon. Here’s my idea for how to leverage that data into something not entirely unique, but possibly revenue generating and fun…

Create a separate website called “Reviewster” (terrible name added for reference purposes only). Reviewster will contain a database of all movies (ala IMDB) and videogames. This ad-supported component is free for both members and non-members to use. Unreleased games and movies that are in theaters or pending theatrical release should also be added. Game and movie studios can also add trailers and other promotional crap to the relevant Reviewster entry for their game and movie…possibly in exchange for their games and movies being offered on Reviewster and Netflix (which is having problems getting content at the moment).

The second piece of Reviewster is personalization. Reviewster will also store each Quikster and Netflix user’s reviews and ratings. This allows users to access their ratings across all three services, as well as share them with Reviewster/Netflix/Quikster friends (via a simple, one-click “Recommend” button), the general public (via a “share my ratings and reviews with the public” user account setting) and to Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Reviewster will also act as a supplemental method for adding movies to each queue, as well as requesting that movies be added to each service. For example, each movie and game that is on Quikster will have an “Add to Quikster Queue” button. Movies and games that are not on Quikster will have an “I Want This On Quikster” button. Same thing for Netflix…add “Add to queue and “I want this on” buttons for that service as well. This will allow both services to anticipate demand for movies and games on a per-movie/per-game basis.

Other features like purchasing tickets and buying movies and games could easily be added to Reviewster. They could also partner up with respected movie and game reviewers in the industry to generate exclusive content.

If Reed Hastings and the folks at Netflix and Quikster do happen to stumble across and hopefully use this idea I hope that they do me the courtesy of a free lifetime membership to both services