Postal Service Surcharge Could Slash Netflix Profit

mikesd81 writes "Boston.com reports that Netflix Inc., the largest US mail-order movie-rental service, may suffer a cut in profits if the US Postal Service starts charging extra to manually sort the envelopes that carry its DVDs. An audit prepared by the Postal Service's Inspector General last month recommended charging one unidentified company 17 cents per envelope for labor costs. Citigroup analyst Tony Wible, who said in a note to investors Tuesday that the company is Netflix, estimated the charge might reduce profit per subscriber to $0.35 from $1.05. Wible advises investors to buy Blockbusters shares because their DVD envelopes don't have the problem (floppy edges that jam the USPS's automated sorting machinery). Netflix says the whole thing is no big deal and they will change their envelopes if necessary."

Comments

There's more to it than that.

[doublem]

The real story here is that the US Postal service is trying to pressure Netflix into changing their envelope design. This means Netflix is shipping so many movies that a flimsy envelope has gotten the attention of the US Postal service and is annoying the heck out of them. A sturdier envelope would no doubt be more expensive, but the odds are that Netflix will just do whichever is cheaper: Pay the extra fee or cough up the extra cash for new envelopes.

The fact that a Blockbuster shill is trying to spin this as some devastating catastrophe for Netflix is just proof of how desperate Blockbuster is, and how badly they're getting nailed by Netflix.

Netflix also says they pay more than they need

[A nonymous Coward]

Netflix also said they pay for pickup service even tho they deliver their shipments to the post office, at an estimated $100M savings to the post office. They could either demand the post office pick up as they are paid to do, or charge less for what they don't do.

Either way, this is nothing but a conflict of interest from that so-called analyst. I wonder if the SEC will investigate him for this.

Re:Netflix says they will just change the envelope

[Shakrai]

What I find interesting is that the US Post Office has suffered in silence for 2 years

I find it unlikely that they are "suffering". In fact, it's probably in the best interests of the Post Office to work with Netflix to find a solution to this and keep them around. After all, how many new businesses are there that rely on the good ole post office as a cornerstone of their business model? Not many I'd suspect....