Netflix launched their online movie and TV streaming service this week for Canadian subscribers. The service is being introduced for a monthly fee of $7.99, $1 less than American subscribers currently pay.
The Hollywood Reporter interviewed the CEO and co-founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings, about the company’s international expansion. One of the questions asked of Hastings was if there is any concern that subscribers in the United States might begin questioning the lower subscription price offered in Canada.
The answer seems to have understandably shocked and offended quite a number of US subscribers.
Once word of the comment began to circulate the web on such sites as Consumerist.com, the embarrassed CEO issued a public apology on the Netflix corporate blog.
“My Big American Foot is in my mouth. Yesterday, I made an awkward joke with a reporter in Toronto about Americans (like me) being self-absorbed relative to Netflix pricing in Canada. I was wrong to have made the joke, and I do not believe that one of the most philanthropically-minded nations in the world (America) is self-absorbed or full of self-absorbed people… My apologies to anyone offended by my self-absorbed comment.”
Hastings also attempted to explain that the reason for the price difference between the two countries was not really because they were trying to give Canada a special deal, as he seemed to be saying in the original interview, but actually because there is no DVD-by-mail option there.
I’m not actually personally offended by Hastings’ is an idiotic thing for the CEO of an international corporation to say. Make “jokes” like that in your personal office to your executive staff if you feel so inclined, but don’t say it in a public interview.
