Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Subject Views on captioning online video from the CEO of Netflix

Below is an Email I recieved and would like to SHARE with you ALL:

Folks,For those who don't know, Netflix is a company that distributes DVDs by mail to millions of subscribers. It's a great service.

About 18 months ago, they also started offering a service that would deliver
content to your computer or television, via the Internet, that you could
start watching virtually immediately. This method of delivery is,
unquestionably, the wave of the future. Unfortunately, these streaming
videos contain none of the subtitle or caption information present on almost
every DVD out there.

A recent article on a financial blog is making waves in the captioning and
deaf blogospheres. At a sparsely attended annual shareholder¹s meeting, the
author asked Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, about the lack of captioning.
Hastings basically said they don¹t care about the issue that much, and when
everyone else has captions, they¹ll add captions.

Nice answer, huh?

Anyway, here's a link to the original post. CLICK HERE

I couldn¹t find an email for Hastings, or for other senior managers at
Netflix, but this is the sort of issue where public pressure can make a
difference. If you have a Netflix subscription, consider canceling, and when
they ask, tell them why. If you¹re considering a Netflix subscription, think
twice.

As a community that relies on captioning, I refuse to support a company that
refuses to support us. Just my two cents...

Michael Kaplan
HLA Los Angeles


FOR YOUR INFORMATION(FYI)- Consumer organizations are writing letters about this, and it is important that individual consumers write letters as well. Your individual letters will help in advocacy efforts. If you are a member, say so. If you intend to be a member, say what you need. Here is the address:

Reed Hastings
Chief Executive Officer & President
Netflix, Inc
100 Winchester Circle
Los Gatos, CA 95032


I thought this was a great email to post!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE for those of you that dont know about this situation and use NETFLIX PLEASE WRITE LETTERS!!! This is the ONLY WAY**** OUR VOICES WILL BE HEARD.


Thanks


Smile-Hugs,
Danielle

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I will be honest here, I think that was just a simple...look good but do nothing reply email. They basically are blaming us for not sending letters, when there is obvious studies that show how big a market there is for closed/open caption media.

Yes he (the representative from Netflix) is right, the squeaky wheel does get the grease. But I bet if they showed initiative, I know personally I would be heart warmed and more apt to support their services over others that were "forced" to caption media to preserve their market shares of the mighty dollar.