When it comes to monthly subscriptions schemes, we all like to think we are getting good value for money; especially in today’s difficult economic climate. However there is no doubt that Mark Malkoff took this to a new level, when he sat down at watched 252 streamed movies from Netflix, inside just one month.
11th June is officially Mark Malkoff day!
So much so that when the very nice people at Netflix got wind of his mammoth viewing session they took it upon themselves to invite the guy down to Netflix towers for the day. To further mark the event they named the 11th June as Mark Malkoff day – I guess this could only happen in the states!
Mr Malkoff was given the full guided tour of the Californian operation, and rightly so he was totally blown away by events. He watched alongside Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings in the auditorium area, as company employees screened the video detailing his ‘Netflix challenge event’, which showed him viewing a total of 252 Netflix movies lasting just over 400 hours.
Comedian Malkoff kept the Netflix executives laughing when giving them an insight of what he had to contend with when watching the films, he went on to say, “his biggest mistake was using the internet for help as what to watch”, adding that he learned, “never to ever watch another Vanilla Ice movie again”. One tip he gave the chaps at Netflix was to ensure that Vanilla Ice movies should have their very own viewing category, “not suitable for anyone!”
A quick look at the numbers:
- Malkoff watched 252 movies in one month
- Lasting 404.25 hours
- Netflix subscription $7.99
- 1GB average movie size in standard definition
Based on the above it works out that it cost just $0.32 per movie; now that is what I call value for money!
One thing that isn’t clear is just what his ISP thinks of his exploits, I would imagine that they will be taking a much closer look at his usage over the coming months; not that it would be possible to go through all that again, unless you were a complete lunatic that is, and there is certainly no suggestion that Mr Malkoff is indeed that.
Thankfully Netflix took it all in their stride, and didn’t kick up a fuss regarding any potential ‘misuse of service’; to be fair they will have revelled in the publicity coming from this event, and will no doubt pick up a huge number of additional subscribers on the back of it. However, if I was being cynical, I might even suggest that Netflix even put Mr Malkoff up to doing it.
It should be noted that Malkoff isn’t new to this type of stunt, he gained worldwide media attention when back in 2007 he attempted to visit all 171 franchises of Starbucks in Manhattan, in just a single day! Good for him.
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