14 DAY TRIAL // Netflix's Canada launch was supposed to be a great move, the first international market where the service is available. But the company has been apologizing for about three days straight and the hits just keep on coming.
At first it was the whole business with the actors paid to mingle with the crowd at the launch.
The latest is CEO and founder Reed Hastings apologizing for some comments he made at the Canadian launch which some Americans took offence to.
The comments in question were that Americans were too self-centered to notice the price disparity between the US service and the Canadian one.
The response may have been accurate or just spur of the moment, but it sure got some people up-in-arms.
When asked by The Hollywood Reporter if he is concerned that Americans will be upset about the price difference Hastings replied:
"How much has it been your experience that Americans follow what happens in the world? It's something we'll monitor, but Americans are somewhat self-absorbed."
The service in Canada is available for $7.99 a month while Netflix goes for $8.99 a month in the US. Of course there is a big difference, the Canadian service is streaming-only, while the US one is mainly about the DVD rentals, with streaming as a bonus.
Still, some people didn't like being called self-absorbed so Hastings issued an apology.
"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," he said in a blog post.
"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," he added.
He went on to explain to the obviously not self-absorbed Americans how the services are actually different so the price difference is justified. As somewhat of a side-note, he also made a pretty big announcement, the US will be getting a streaming-only version soon enough as well.