[Movies/TV] Netflix raising prices by 60%

[Nanaboostme]

Every current Netflix user should have received this letter in their email:

Dear XX,

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $7.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

I'm pretty disappointed by this, but I'll probably be choosing streaming and using the redbox if I want to rent a dvd. What a sad day

[kaze950]

Yeah, I would support this change if Netflix offered all of their titles via streaming, but they really only offer crappy and/or older movies + some decent TV shows... I'm just using netflix for DVDs now.

[Nanaboostme]

Yea a lot of the streamings are mediocre, unknown films but I'm to the point where I'm too lazy to return the dvds and wait for them. By the time i receive it, im not even in the moood for it anymore. So Id probably prefer redbox in this situation and stick with streaming only. I'm pretty sure they'll be broadening their streaming choices... hopefully

[drhay53]

yeah i was pretty ticked about this. I've been with netflix for years, this is a pretty crappy thing to do to a 3+ year customer.

[Creotor]

It's disappointing, but it makes sense. They were charging an extremely low price for 1 dvd at a time + streaming. I'll be keeping the streaming for now and then will either upgrade to +1 dvd or just unsubscribe.

---------- Post added 2011-07-12 at 09:48 PM ----------

It's disappointing, but it makes sense. They were charging an extremely low price for 1 dvd at a time + streaming. I'll be keeping the streaming for now and then will either upgrade to +1 dvd or just unsubscribe.

Doesn't depend on just Netflix, but the various owners of media's rights as well. A lot of them just don't want to make agreements with Netflix because of low profitability at the moment and in long-term as well. That's what I've heard, at least.

[Da Baws]

I'm canceling my service with them. I didn't mind the $2 increase a few months ago cause, it's $2. But a hike-up like this? I've been a loyal customer for almost 3 years now, never missing a month of payment. I don't get any customer rewards or anything, and I never minded that. But to not grandfather anybody into this new pricing, that's straight bullshit to me. I'm going back to downloading all my movies.

[blackangel209]

Might switch over to Netflix+Hulu streaming because of this. I've been slowing way down on DVD consumption anyway and most of what I watch are tv shows.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=14055320
New pricing tiers: 8/16/20/24 for streaming/+1/+2/+3

[Tziva]

I'm curious about the other plans. Their announcement didn't address any but their two cheapest packages (streaming only & one-dvd-a-month). We have the two-DVD a month ($16) plan. Will that one stop offering streaming too?

But, yeah, as I said elsewhere:

I guess it's still cheaper than traditional renting if you watch a lot of movies, so can't complain too much.

Unfortunately the streaming stuff offers very few movies I want to watch anyway. Just glancing at my queue (about 200 long) there is only like 20 of them available via streaming. Of course, part of that is because I knock the streaming outs out faster, but still. Also, no captioning or other menu options are available via streaming (yet?), which is a big annoyance.

[Nanaboostme]

I guess I saw this coming. It was way too good to be true. Netflix really grew substantially and I was aware other companies were outraged by how much profit Netflix was garnering from them.

[Tziva]

I'm canceling my service with them. I didn't mind the $2 increase a few months ago cause, it's $2. But a hike-up like this? I've been a loyal customer for almost 3 years now, never missing a month of payment. I don't get any customer rewards or anything, and I never minded that. But to not grandfather anybody into this new pricing, that's straight bullshit to me. I'm going back to downloading all my movies.

Well, they kinda did. Existing members are getting like three months at the old price while new members pay the hike now. That's about the best you can hope for; it's not realistic to ask a business to not raise rates on existing customers just because they're existing customers. Prices get raised for lots of legitimate reasons, and businesses need to make money.

Obviously their streaming plan got way, way more attention than they expected and ended up being a significant bandwidth hog.

[AetherMcLoud]

Who needs DVDs when he's able to stream video on demand?

Lucksack Americans. We Europeans still aren't able to get anything even close to the awesomeness that is netflix and hulu and both of them aren't allowed to distribute their stuff into the EU. Goddamn european digital stone age policies.

[blackangel209]

Obviously their streaming plan got way, way more attention than they expected and ended up being a significant bandwidth hog.

That's putting it lightly. Wasn't it something like 20% of the US bandwidth usage last year?

[Sanctioned]

I'd really like to just go streaming only but the streaming library needs to become larger before I'd move to streaming only. Alot of the crap I want to watch is DVD only so it sucks.

[AetherMcLoud]

That's putting it lightly. Wasn't it something like 20% of the US bandwidth usage last year?

Yep. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/...-bandwith-use/

[Parkbench]

I love netflix streaming.. They may not have everything I want to watch but there's always something for me.. The service is pretty amazing too, I've had very few problems with lag or disconnects.

[Tziva]

Yeah, the point is that in this case, I think they have a pretty justifiable reason to separate it into an additional pay service.

[Nanaboostme]

Who needs DVDs when he's able to stream video on demand?

Netflix's streaming is currently very limited and many of the films they have for streaming-only is mediocre or unknown films. I'm sticking with streaming only for now but if they dont broaden their choices, i'll be switching to DVD as you can rent anything you want

[AetherMcLoud]

Anyway, those prices are insane. 8€ for unlimited streaming a month? 6€ for unlimited DVDs (1 at a time, which is reasonable) a month? Where I live (EU) you pay almost 2 euros per freaking day for a DVD rental. Unlimited streaming? Try something about 50 euros a month and then it has a really shitty library and only has shitty german dubbed stuff without the original english audio tracks. *rant*

[Rhonen]

Like someone else alluded to, it's pretty disconcerting already that the streaming service doesn't give you access to their entire library. With that still being very limited, I'm pondering just dropping the service as I do not rent DVDs enough by mail to justify keeping that part of it. The streaming itself is awesome, but the available content is just so limited. I'm really conflicted by this...

[haydude]

Netflix needs to get some serious licensing done for their streaming if they actually hope to sell it as a separate plan. As it is I hear their contract with Starz is ending soon. I forsee a lot of people dropping down to just DVD only plans, I think I will, because as people have said, there's really nothing worthwhile enough on the streaming for an extra 7.99 a month.