Slashdot Mirror
Netflix Announces Streaming Only Plans and Higher Prices for DVDs
micsaund writes "While Netflix has continued to drop fees and still maintain a good services, today, they take three steps in the other direction by doubling the cost of the plan you probably already have: 'So for instance, our current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans ... Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month ... Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming), for $7.99 a month. ... The price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99).' Now, if they could get everything available on streaming, this would be fine, but how many times have you needed to get a physical disc for that oddball movie, or had a movie in your instant queue that magically disappears due to some behind-the-scenes contract expiration or whatever?"
With regard to the bottom line, of course. :-P
What, you thought customers mattered? How quaint.
Cynically,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Most people use the discs mainly and stream infrequently or stream frequently and use the discs rarely. For $7.99, I can pass on the streaming titles.
So $17.99 a month (with BlueRay) is $216 a year... They don't have enough new movies available that I want to watch ever month to make it work $18 a month. For $9 a month I can get HBO/Showtime from my cable company or rent a On Demand movie (when I can find one I want to watch for $6.00).
I wonder how many customers this will cost them? It J\just seems that with usage caps popping up all over.. it seems that increasing your fees and offering nothing more seems to be a really good way to shoot yourself in the foot. If Netflix was using that increase to payoff the ISPs to get their traffic excluded from the caps it might be worth it.
--Hired Net Grunt
Well I'm not to sure how I feel about this. I currently have the streaming + 1 dvd. I only watch a dvd every few months but the option was still nice to have. There is no way I would pay 8 bucks a month for the few dvds I would watch. But on the other hand the streaming selection is pretty poor so paying 8 bucks a month for just streaming doesn't seem like that great of a deal. I think they've shot themselves in the foot but without a great alternative they will probably get away with it.
Didn't they do this like six months ago?
How is the price for DVD only subscription higher if it stays the same?
Bad summary.
OH well, this doesn't affect me because I use torrents for my shows.
Previewing comments are for sissies!
For $9 a month I can get HBO/Showtime from my cable company
My cable company won't even let me subscribe to HBO or Showtime until I already subscribe to a $80/mo bundle of other channels that I don't watch.
...because I'm not in a country where Netflix is available.
If I was, I'd be a bit peeved, of course.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
If there is no long-term commitment, then subscribe to DVDs and streaming in alternate months, and watch those works that aren't available on streaming during each DVD month.
This save me a whole bunch of money; now I have a good reason to cancel my plan.
Don't raise my cost by 50%+, not give me even a token thing more (and actually have a constantly shrinking streaming selection), and tell me this is a wonderful thing that is serving my best interests. People get angry when you lie to their face about something they can clearly se eis untrue. They assume you assume they are idiots.
Netflix doesn't have any serious competition, so why not raise the price?
On the one hand, I'm moderately curious to try out NetFlix.
Since ditching the Cable Company I've been using an Antenna, Hulu, and Amazon Video to watch pretty much anything I've wanted (or at least enough that I haven't felt the miss except for a few "Cable Only" shows).
I've been thinking about giving NetFlix a whirl as a supplement, but now I'm not sure which side I'd try (maybe the Disk Rental).
On the other hand, considering that the reason I told the Cable Companies to take a hike was that they kept jacking up their fees and giving me little in return, I can see this being the tipping point for some customers to move on to a "NetFlix Free" life.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
What I don't understand is how streaming a movie is any different than renting a DVD in the eyes of the consumer. I also know that it's MUCH easier to copy a DVD then to capture the stream. So, what's up with the bizarre and seemingly arbitrary limitation of movies available for streaming? It's even worse in Canada, I can pretty much rent the same DVDs but the content available for streaming is just rubbish compared to what's available in the US.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Aleister Crowley
I don't know if it is Netflix's fault or the studios', but the service-cost to service-value ratio is getting bigger and bigger every day. I would guess it is the increasing cost of license fees that is to blame, but Netflix has made some pretty crappy decisions that are independent of studio greed (see incredibly poorly done watch-instantly interface redesign and subsequent customer complaint handling for an example). Either way, between this and what's going on with Hulu it seems that the days of relatively cheap (but legal) access to studio/network/cable content without a cable package are coming to an end.
It'll be full DVDs for me. Menus, x-tra features (RIPPABLE! - ahem) various languages & subs for the hearing impaired etc. Never streamed that much anyway. I'll stick to discs-by-mail, thanks.
Now I do not have to pay for streaming that I could not use anyway because I do not user Windows or OSX.
I just switched from 2 DVDs out + unlimited streaming for $15 per mo to 2 DVDs out and no streaming for $12 per month. Same service, lower price.
Thank you Netflix!
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
For a number of years, as a Netflix customer, I've been watching and thus receiving less and less DVDs a month. Two years ago I cut back to one-at-a-time. Streaming was free. Then the price went up for $2 (apparently, history being re-written, that hike was for the one-at-a-time dvd plan, the cost of the original one-at-a-time dvd plan being directed towards a streaming plan!) $10/mo still felt like a soft cost, I could absorb it, I did. Now it's going up to $16/mo. I like getting a dvd now and then, rarely, maybe 1-2 a month. I stream a movie about as often. I can live without both of those. I'll get my DVDs at the corner store or on demand and live without old movies. Netflix, a company I once thought of as great, is now just another company trying to get as much out of me as they can. Well, the pushed a bit too hard. They now get ZERO out of me and I hold grudges. Netflix: Don't expect me to return to you anytime soon EVEN if you improve your cost structure. It will cost you all the money you lose from me in the meanwhile AND the cost of re-acquiring me as a customer - buying my loyalty back, should you choose to, to get me back.
I mean, bandwidth, at their scale, has got to be pretty cheap, and raising prices on existing customers? always pisses people off.
Personally, though, this is okay for me; I use the DVDs and I don't stream, so a small discount is welcome.
still no? i understand the silverlight DRM issue on linux, but if they can stream to roku and game consoles without silverlight (perhaps xbox?), then why can't the same feed be made available to linux PCs?
I've been very pleased with quality and content for streaming through consoles. I only get 1 DVD a month or so, so I will definitely lower my plan and use RedBox as needed.
The estimate is that in 2012, Netflix's license fees will go from $180 million in 2010 to $1.98 billion in 2012, according to this.
Its going to be very hard for anyone to become the legal clearinghouse for media at a price point most consumers see as reasonable because the studios won't allow it.
What?
The original article says that they will "no longer offer a plan that includes both unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail," but the example they cite only includes 1 DVD at a time. When they were DVD-only, it was usually 3 or 4 at a time.
The implication is that they're going to stop offering those plans at all come September. That seems premature: the streaming catalog is getting better, but it's far from complete.
I have the 3 plan and am currently paying $24 a month for it. Currently, each additional disk costs either $5 or $6. They could be planning to raise that to $8, or just not offering it at all, which would be kind of odd.
I'll be cancelling my subscription this Fall.
Between the horrible UI rewrite, the shrinking streaming selection, and now a price hike, Netflix no longer offers enough value to be worth the money.
Anybody know of competitors? Amazon's streaming service looks kind of interesting.
"but how many times have you needed to get a physical disc for that oddball movie?"
Never....ARRRRGGG! The price is right too.
Basically, this will drive people to use Redbox for disc-based movies and NetFlix for screaming.
The two rules for success are:
1) Never tell them everything you know.
It's time to go streaming only. If everyone drops the DVD then they'll have to offer the content on streaming or get beat by a competitor that will offer it. By keeping that just-in-case disc subscription you delay the inevitable change.
Why would they introduce something they've had for a long time?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
$8/month streaming only - great for hopping around when I don't know what to watch.
$1/DVD rental at the video store at the end of my block for DVDs. I don't think I watch more than one or two movies at a month, anyways.
Done! That, plus the 20 ATSC channels I get with my new roof-mount antenna, and I'm saving $30/month from not having a cable bill. The antenna will pay for itself in two months.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
The only Blockbuster left in a 10 mile radius of my house is an unmanned kiosk which is broken half the time. If I can't get everything via streaming, then Netflix has become far less useful to me. I was under the impression this was a semi-sustainable business; if I had known that they were just doing it long enough to kill the competition then jack up prices, I probably would have stuck with old faithful.
The CB App. What's your 20?
Now that there is an option to go streaming only and never have to worry about physical delivery, how hard is it to anonymously subscribe to netflix?
Can you send them a cashiers check for a year at a time? How about using one of those debit cards you can buy with cash at the convenience store? Is there such a thing as a netflix gift card that you can buy with cash?
I know that netflix will still get your IP address when they stream content to you (unless you have a really kick-ass VPN tunnel or the like), but I'm assuming that if you lie about your identity - especially if you do it intelligently and use a fake address that is still in the same town so geo-locators won't throw an alarm about your IP address, they will only bother to cross-reference your viewing habits with your made up identity rather your real self.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I carpool in a parking lot next to a county library that just opened up last year. I think I'll stop in and see what their DVD collection looks like.
Just recently, all of the Star Trek TV series came on Instant (There goes my free time).
A little while back we were watching an episode of Doc Martin and had to stop partway through. The next morning, we try to open up the same episode to resume watching, only to find that that particular season was no longer viewable on Instant. We called tech support, and were told that content gets pulled out of rotation from time to time. Their recommended recourse -- wait a couple weeks and check again.
So sure, Star Trek came on Instant. But what else went away instead?
Finally, keep in mind this is a price decrease for those not interested in streaming at all, and $16 is WAY cheaper than my previous $50 cable bill
But for those of us who had happily been using the service as we'd signed up for it, using both Instant and DVDs-by-mail for $9.99 a month, this new pricing is not exactly a bargain.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
We end up renting most of our physical DVD's from Redbox anyway if they are not available on Zediva or Netflix streaming. I think this is a mistake by Netflix as their streaming content sucks for adults. We have to keep it for the kids though, they have great streaming for kids shows. Sounds like they want out of the DVD business.
Sounds like the content providers are starting to work as an oligopoly and extracting the maximum cash out of Netflix, either that or Netfix is starting to cash in on the growing customer base.
Another thought just popped into my head, and that might be that Netflix is trying to actively fracture their customer base to beat on their chest to the content providers that streaming or on demand content is the only means people will access media, or it could be that they are going to sell off the DVD distribution side and focus on the lower costs associated without having to warehouse, sort, ship, receive, and resort DVDs.
Crap! I just kissed my karma good-bye.
This should have been seen as inevitable, since it's been made clear that the content owners have been floored by the success of Netflix and are trying to negotiate much better terms for themselves now.
I'm delighted at how little my own costs are going up (less than 8% I think).
I'm also a little frustrated that so many people are reacting so strongly to this -- the content owners would all rather force us into "Hulu+" (with subscription plus advertising), or to "Zune Marketplace" or "iTunes" (per-episode purchase or rentals), or back to cable operators, and all the folks who are dropping their Netflix subscriptions are helping that happen. Ah well.
I'm not going back. You'll have to live with some fraction of the cut you got for cable/satellite service, whether via Netflix or some other distributor. Streaming is the a la carte that should have been available 20 years ago. I will not pay for a package full of dreck. Pull whatever you want. I'll live with whatever is left over. You're not getting back to $70/month. Deal with it.
You need to adopt this attitude as well. These people need to take a few pay cuts.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Netflix has been really fickle about streaming its titles lately. Some of the titles that were around for streaming have disappeared, some new ones have appeared. Some just made a cameo appearance towards the start of the summer. Now, it would be awesome if there were at least 60-70% of the movies that I want to see, available to stream. I'd have no problems with the split plan.
But as micsaund says, offbeat movies are usually on DVDs. Not just that, when you make a plan with friends to get together and watch a movie, getting a DVD makes the plan more official (people somehow seem to respect the plan more if you have a DVD, as compared to streaming it!). Also, Blu-ray is always good for the HD experience.
All in all, I think this move may cost Netflix some new users. I doubt if their old user-base is going to decrease, because loyalty costs less (both tangible/intangible costs) than finding a new service provider.
Bittorrent never seems to rotate series out. Far more reliable apparently. Sad, I'd hoped Netflix would improve in breadth and depth to the point Bittorrent would be unappealing to them thar pirates.
I pay the $10/mo for one DVD at a time, and streaming. There's a ton of stuff on DVD that doesn't get streamed, and I'm happy to wait for it. I use streaming all the time, but Netflix for me is as much about the DVDs.
Fine if they want to emphasize streaming, but I'm neither going to pay $8/mo for just DVDs, nor $8/mo for just streaming.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
I don't want a subscription, I want to just pay-per-view - like DVD rentals but without the hassle of going to the shop or waiting for the postman.
So far no-one wants to take my money except the pirates.
Shame.
blog.sam.liddicott.com
This is why I've been sending back 3 DVDs in one mailer. I now have several hundred empty envelopes which I will promptly insert a slice of balogna into each and drop them into the mailbox. Statement made.
I love it! You could provide a whole deli-by-mail service -- a slice of bologna in one, cheese in another, mayo in a third, and perhaps a slice apiece of nice garlicky bread in a couple more.
Mm, mm! I'm'a have me some of that! Especially after going through all that US Postal Service machinery. Yum!
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
"but how many times have you needed to get a physical disc for that oddball movie"
Oddball Movie? Most of their tier 1 movies are still only available via disk. Look at their top 100 list and notice the handfull that are available via streaming. Let alone the ones that were available and are now taken back to disk only.
I love Netflix, but they are pushing it if they think approaching basic cable prices can be justified. They are one of the reasons I dropped cable.
So, what happens if we all cancel? They aren't grandfathering us. And certainly we can all go a month with out netflix. Certainly 10,000 people cancelling will send a message.
my life sucks
i have to wait 2 days to get a dvd mailed to my porch
my wrists are itchy, pass the knife.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
My price dropped $4/month by switching to a DVD/Blu-Ray only plan, getting rid of the streaming option that I never actually use. The streaming was too annoying for me to use in practice, really. Thank you Netflix and Slashdot!
It is $7.99/mo. for the things that are available for streaming, then for new releases and things not available on streaming, it is an additional $0.00 for BitTorrent.
Movie studios, please do the math.
Given that this is occurring after a record breaking year of profits (due mainly to limiting users ability to add DVDs to their queue to only on the main website), you know this is nothing but a greedy attempt to keep profits rising. But with prices this much higher for the same service, they will open the door wide open to competition now. They may think they can charge us whatever they want because they are such a monopoly, but when you get this greedy, that can change in a heartbeat.
because I only got 2 DVDs a month, and streamed the rest. Now I would have to pay 62% more for the same thing. Guess I'll drop DVDs and keep streaming. Netflix loses, because honestly there isn't much new on DVD that I want to watch anyway. I can wait out the content providers - they will cave eventually. If I don't see something for five years, BFD. They make money on early adopters, not me.
Before they had streaming, 1 DVD unlimited was $9.99. So $7.99 now for the same thing is actually a $2 less. My guess is they eventually want to sell off the DVD half of the business.
Forget it about. I cancelled a little over a year ago. The Blue-Rays were only an additional $1, then they hiked it up a few months later. So I dropped to two DVD's and streaming. Then I noticed the prices creeping up, so I cancelled. I signed up with Netflix originally in 2003 after getting screwed over at Blockbuster on some BS late fees. The latest pricing plans and marketing had me reconsidering a new account, but I wanted to read some comparisons with Hulu. Lately I get my movies from Torrents, Amazon, or On Demand. This reminds me of the Sirius/XM merger where we were promised pricing would remain the same but then things like streaming audio went from free to pay only.
What, you thought customers mattered? How quaint.
Speaking as someone who only uses the streaming and will evidently see a 2 dollar a month reduction... uh... evidently yes. Keep the DVD and I'll keep the $2. Not sure why netflix didn't do this before.
Anyway, BI is BS.
Now, they are forcing people like me who were paying $9.99 a month, to drop to a streaming only plan at $7.99 a month. That's $24 in revenue they are missing out from one customer, per year, and they are going to be millions like me who make that decision.
So he's whining about raising the price, and then saying on top of that netflix is going to be losing money when he pays the lower price. It's kind of like he's whining about having to keep his cake and whining about having to eat it too.
Not having to mail out DVDs is more efficient and cheaper. Their long-term goal is to do away with mailing DVDs out as is. They like it, we like it since it loads in minutes, not days. The one and only problem is the greedy-ass studios. They're who I'm mad at putting limits on what can be streamed. They're the ones I blame, they're the ones screwing over me.
For the moment, our interests align with netflix. Hopefully, getting everyone to switch to streaming will put more pressure on the studios to grow up and stop acting like not buying physical media is sacrilegious, and will force the telecom monopoly to be reasonable about how much bandwidth we can consume.
Mailed DVDs really are only good for the post office, which aside from DVD delivery service, is mostly dead weight these days.
2*$10 != $16, last time I checked.
My billing history shows that my bill goes up every 8 months... I still see the advantage to netflix because the price hasnt caught up to my last cable bill. My service plan with unlimited 2 dvds + unlimited streaming is now the same as what my parents paid when I was 10 yrs old... 30 yrs ago... not bad. Still keeping Netflix!! And my other various methods of seeing movies and shows.
Netflix could increase their price 5-fold and it would still be cheaper than cable television with more content and higher quality. Now, if Netflix could become a broadband provider and totally eliminate the ISP, *then* they would be a powerhouse. It might be a good idea for them to do anyway, since their business model relies on their biggest competitors providing the delivery mechanism for their service.
I've had a bad habit of getting a Netflix disc, then leaving it sitting beside the TV for months without watching it. I've been willing to pay $2 a month for this privilege because there are, occasionally, movies I want to see that are not streamable. Assuming they're not going to grandfather in existing members' plans, I intend to cancel the disc part of my service. I also intend to explore what other options are available - It may make more financial sense for me to get an Apple TV for instance, or start relying on Amazon's streaming instead of Netflix.
I'm not going to pay eight or nine bucks a month for the privilege of keeping a disc on the shelf. If I want to watch a DVD in the future, I'll use Redbox - it's slightly less convenient, but the price point Netflix is introducing is above the threshhold where I'm willing to put up with an inconvenience.
So, in the end, the amount of money Netflix gets from me after the first of September is going to go down or vanish completely. Good move, Netflix!
#DeleteChrome
I just now logged into my account and canceled DVD delivery. Streaming appears to be the way things are going, and if Netflix thinks they can have it both ways, it'll have to be with someone else.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I really don't see what everybody is whining about. Those prices are still a steal of a deal compared to cable/satellite subscriptions, and in my particular case it will raise my rate by $1 at the most. Oh woe is me. Since I signed up they have grown their streaming library massively while dealing with backwards content companies. Sure I have complaints; I really wish they would make an effort to enable streaming on Linux, but I think they deserve some slack on this one. Apparently some people just won't be satisfied until Netflix gives it all to them for free and sends their CEO over to give them a happy ending as well.
Netflix is constantly adding things to their streaming side of things, so it isn't like they are charging more and offering less.
As noted elsewhere in this thread, Netflix also pulls content out of rotation, so that things that were previously available for streaming are suddenly gone, and sometimes without warning. Then a few weeks later that same content will be back again, but something else will be missing.
I rather wonder if some beancounter isn't being overly stingy in their hardware budget, and they have to cycle content out of rotation to make room on their servers.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
time to cancel DVD delivery.. hardly use it anyway, not worth $8..
I already cancelled my Netflix account.
With some estimates that their licensing costs will go up ten fold once the current set of contracts expire. They have to do whatever they can to amp up revenue, and segmenting the market is a tried and true strategy.
I have a feeling that Netflix is about to create a whole bunch of Amazon Prime subscribers. It works out to about $6.50/mo for the Prime subscription, and you get fast shipping (with no $25 order minimum) on all of your purchases in addition to the streaming. Amazon's streaming library isn't great, but Netflix has holes in their streaming catalog. I'm sure both are working to add new content, and Amazon gives me a bunch of other nice perks.
One, and only one of the following is true:
1. You only have the right to express annoyance about something you don't like if nothing worse is happening anywhere else in the world.
2. You're an idiot.
For the cost of the 1-at-a-time DVD plan with Netflix we can get 2-3 streaming rentals from Amazon for the exact same movies.
Our Roku player already has the ability to tie in with Amazon's service, so all Netflix did with this was lose $2/month from us. We were on the $9.99/mo plan, but just switched it to the streaming-only, $7.99 plan.
Rate increases always suck. But I so rarely use the streaming option, anyway, that this turns out to be helpful. I am glad that they at least separated the two options.
My 1-at-a-time + streaming costs were $9/mo (I believe) just several months ago. Then they raised it to $10.50/mo. Now they want $16??!!?!! There is no way I am going to pay $7/mo more just to retain the occasional streaming of a small catalog of movies. I will just drop the streaming and go to the $8/mo plan.
Hate to lose any type of functionality, but money is money.
BTW- If I were going to spend $16/mo- that is the exact same price as my cable company charges for 9 channels of HBO plus HBO on demand. And cable is ALWAYS overpriced...
In essence, the service itself is friggin' great, so I wouldn't mind a price-hike in that respect. I think they should offer a discount for having both plans (e.g. $8 for DVD, or $8 for instant, but $14 for both).
I'm far more NERD RAGEd about the recent change to the web-interface for finding instant-view titles, or more specifically, the callous response by execs when the negative reception was brought to their attention. If it wasn't for the fact that they released their API, allowing services like http://instantwatcher.com/ I probably would've cancelled subscription for that.
Oh sure - I post this comment in the two articles that don't make the front page. Well, here it is anyway:
This is a harsh jump, especially for this long time subscriber. I remember when they went from $9.99 to $7.99 for single disk renters. They threw on the streaming for free. Only recently they jumped back up to $9.99. These are nice easy steps. For reference, I don't like paying over $13 for an MMO monthly registration (Everquest, World of Warcraft) and this Netflix cost jump is not insignificant - it's a 60% increase in cost!
I imagine their disk mailers will be virtually non-existent. I know I will be dropping that service. My kids are enjoying the streaming videos too much that I would not get away from dropping that service. They watch an untold number of hours watching the children's shows (educational types and other fun stuff). But I appreciated having the disks of movies that hadn't quite made it to the streaming list.
Perhaps they are trying to send a message to the MPAA studios? Are the studios trying to twist Netflix' arm? What is going on in the industry? I know who is going to get hurt from this: The US Postal Service! I would say it is also the subscribers, but the extra features are stripped from rental DVDs now - so there is very little difference between the streaming and a physical disk.
Question for Netflix: What is the rental rate on BluRay disks? How bad is it for BD? I don't own a BD system and likely never will. If I did own BluRay, that would be my only reason for hanging on to the mailer.
Same here -- my $9.99/month plan just went to $15.98/month. I stream many, many titles every month, and my queue turns over at a steady rate of one DVD every two days. Even ignoring all the titles I stream, I'm still paying less than a dollar per movie. Factor in the streams, and I'm at pennies per show. I can't even get a basic cable package from Cox Cable for under $40/month, let alone any of the premium tiers. So fuck Cox and the rest of the cable content providers -- I think Netflix rocks. It will continue to be my vector for video entertainment into the foreseeable future.
Thank you for reminding me why piracy is always an easier route. I assure you this will be the last time I try a legal alternative. Vote with your wallet people.
Where do these people live who have network bandwidth that supports streaming?
Urban areas only? Get outside a large metropolitan area and you have little or
no choice of bad services, slow networks and high prices. If DVDs really do go away,
so will any movie viewing on my part.
Official from member's subscription page:
Unlimited Streaming - $7.99 a month
1 DVD out at-a-time - $7.99 a month
2 DVDs out at-a-time - $11.99 a month
3 DVDs out at-a-time - $15.99 a month
4 DVDs out at-a-time - $21.99 a month
5 DVDs out at-a-time - $27.99 a month
6 DVDs out at-a-time - $32.99 a month
7 DVDs out at-a-time - $37.99 a month
8 DVDs out at-a-time - $43.99 a month
Unlimited Streaming+ 1 DVD out at-a-time - $15.98 a month
Unlimited Streaming+ 2 DVDs out at-a-time - $19.98 a month
Unlimited Streaming+ 3 DVDs out at-a-time - $23.98 a month
Unlimited Streaming+ 4 DVDs out at-a-time - $29.98 a month
Unlimited Streaming+ 5 DVDs out at-a-time - $35.98 a month
Unlimited Streaming+ 6 DVDs out at-a-time - $40.98 a month
Unlimited Streaming+ 7 DVDs out at-a-time - $45.98 a month
Unlimited Streaming+ 8 DVDs out at-a-time - $51.98 a month
1 DVD out at-a-time(limit 2 rentals a month) - $4.99 a month
Starz Play Only (no DVDs) - $6.99 a month
So he's whining about raising the price, and then saying on top of that netflix is going to be losing money when he pays the lower price.
I'll agree that TFA's author's argument is a bit odd here at best.
But that's not my beef. My issue is that I'll have to pay more to get the same level of service that I've had for some time now.
Mailed DVDs really are only good for the post office
...unless whatever it is you'd like to watch just isn't available for streaming. If it's on DVD, the only barriers to being able to offer it up for streaming are 1) hardware, which they should have mostly covered already, and 2) BS, frankly -- greedy studios insisting on unreasonable terms. But inasmuch as the movie studios are not likely to give up their gravy trains without considerable more wailing, gnashing of teeth, and paid-for legislation, I don't expect that Netflix will be able to offer everything for streaming that they should technologically be able to -- and that's where the DVDs-by-mail are actually quite nice to have.
Perhaps my post was in error in equating Netflix's rate hike to a bald profit grab -- but then again, the company's own blog post does nothing to deflect this criticism, either.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
If their entire DVD collection was streamable I might still continue service, but just under the streaming plan. Now I'm just going to cancel.
I guess I'll just go back to pirating everything
Their content licenses only last for so long and have to be renewed. Sometimes the content company won't do it. It happens.
That's a fair point. But from my perspective as an end user, I don't care about Netflix's licensing terms. What's more, they haven't done much to explain these issues to users and make us aware -- a big icon overlaying no-longer-available content that says "This Studio Has Pulled This Content! Email [some_address@studio] to complain!" (well, probably minus the "complain" part in any more realistic view) would help deflect user ire away from Netflix.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Thanks for the story /. I just downgraded my account to streaming only.
You misread. They're not going to stream video anymore; they're only going to stream their plans.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Clearly someone doesn't actually use netflix: I stopped using them after my fees went up 50% inside of a year.
Just changed my plan to streaming only, for now. It's my dollar and that's what I've done. Second price increase since I started 6 months ago. With life schedule and turn around time was only able to watch 4 DVD's a month anyway. Guess I'll go back to borrowing, buying box sets and used DVD's like before. I WILL STAY LEGAL. They and the content providers have now lost a tiny bit of their revenue stream in me and others. Oh well.
Please mod me 1 or troll. It's where the truth is these days, even on Slashdot. Beware the power of moderators everywh
Yeah, obviously streaming is the future, but I never understood why Netflix embraced it like they did. The obvious consequence was always going to be a loss of control over their business model and probable, eventual bankruptcy.
The movie studios will end up shooting themselves in the foot even worse than the RIAA did with all of this licensing bullshit. Now that TVs can play MKVs right out of the box, the studios are about to stir up a wave of piracy that they can't possibly imagine.
With ISPs manufacturing a false scarcity of bandwidth, how is streaming going to be an ultimately viable option, unless you are viewing VCD level quality? Streaming HD eats up those AT&T and Comcast quotas pretty darn fast.
You're not paying more because netflix just decided to charge more. You're paying more because studios have increased their price and because of a weakening dollar. Netflix is just trying to stay in business.
Whatever the reason, I see an increase in cost for a decrease in service provided. And more to the meat of your post, if the move were solely the fault of the studios, Netflix could certainly have done more to point this out in their blog post announcing the change. As it is, I see a lot of blather about in-house pricing decisions, but nothing about studio licensing costs -- which makes the whole affair look more like it's all about Netflix's bottom line.
(NB: I'm not saying that a company can afford to be purely charitable -- but raising prices without noticeably increasing or improving your offering, while at the same time claiming that they are "offering our lowest prices ever", sounds precious close to corporate babble and bald-faced lying. There're happy lies ["you look mahvelous in those trousers!"] and unhappy lies ["lower prices!" when they're really higher], and this one is unhappy.)
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Pretty sure you can sign up for HBO without your cable company and just watch it streaming though
I visited the Order Now page a minute ago and it said "select your provider from the list below". There was no option in the scrolling list for "no provider".
...is good if you're into foreign movies. One thing I noticed is that my instant viewing queue was literally cut in half a few days ago. They simply dropped the streaming versions of many of the movies I had in the queue. This made no sense then, but it does now: What better way to lock in your customer base than to kill off customers' instant queues, thereby forcing them into making a decision: Do I purchase both plans, now that so many instant play options have been removed?
It all makes perfect sense now. I think I'll stick with Netflix for streaming, and my local Redbox (hell, there are probably 10 Redbox kiosks within a 5-mile radius of my house) for DVDs.
BTW, Redbox has started carrying "in-house" rental DVDs that seem to be custom-pressed for Redbox and don't appear to let you fast forward through the previews or jump to the menu. I've found that if you keep pressing "menu" or "FF" between the preview breaks, you'll presently get to where you want to go. Once Redbox figures out how to eliminate this little bug, I'll be through with them.
I agree they're not spinning it the best, but to come out and blame the studios probably wouldn't be the best either since they're already on shaky ground. Really, this is just motivation for me to finally end my DVD subscription part of the plan. I honestly haven't used it in 6 months and the DVDs are sitting in my house. If I want a DVD, I typically use Redbox.
Netflix says a few months ago they can't afford to take on ISPs, then they realign their business model to push people to start hitting their ISP harder?
Sounds to me like the comeback opportunity for mom-and-pop movie rental shops. Blockbuster ran them out of business, now Netflix kills BB...Redbox is too limited in content other than new releases. All this equals opportunity.
The audio was crummy, very few movies with surround sound and the selection was miserable. Less than 10% of the movies in my queue could be streamed. From time to time streamable content would disappear too,
I was pissed when they offered streaming only but not disk only.
With this new model I get to drop streaming and my costs actually go down. So I'm getting what I really want at a lower price.
...it's the 60% rate of increase that drove my decision to cancel today.
I wouldn't accept this from any other provider of a completely optional part of my budget. Not accepting it from Netflix either...
...that's right, folks. Netflix is doing this to fuck you. It has nothing to do with movie studios increasingly strong arming them and demanding more expensive deals. How much are the pitchforks and torches?
Congratulations! I will be canceling my account at the end of this month and switching entirely to Bittorrent. Thanks for making it even harder to do things the "legitimate" way. You killed the golden goose. You had a service that was actually easier and more convenient to me than downloading DVD rips from bittorrent; the price was right, the selection was adequate (but only just), and it was worth it to me to pay for it. Not anymore, I'll just take what I want for free from the superior service known as P2P filesharing. I suggest everyone else do the same.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
I'm already paying 10 euros (=14 dollars) a month for streaming music at spotify and I think it's a great deal. I'd easily pay twice that much for just being able to legally stream high quality movies and tv series. The service (or anything like it. Voddler is hardly worth mentioning) isn't available in my country, however. My options are either to download the stuff illegally or not watch it at all.
Or I can pay the $1 for Redbox movies three times a month and still save tons of money.
Not including the bus fare to and from the Redbox location twice, once to rent and again to return. And I've noticed that Redbox tends to get rid of older films fairly quickly; how should I watch films that Redbox no longer carries?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Disclaimer: I'm not a Netflix user, nor have I ever been, and I don't have cable anymore. Seedbox ftw!
I know people are up in arms over the $6.00 increase, or 60% or whatever. Yes, it's relatively steep. It's still cheaper than basic cable. It's still cheaper than two PPV movies. Where I live, that's about the cost of two good pints of beer. I'd like to think that, if someone were supplying me with all-I-can-eat streaming TV and movies, on every device in my home and on the go, well I think I could buy them a couple pints. I mean, really, $16 these days is a drop in the bucket. 50 cents a day. Hell, fake starving kids in South Fuckaduckia charge more than that for a goddamned picture.
If you liked Netflix yesterday, you still like them today. Spend the extra six bucks. I spent more than that writing this comment, because I wasted more than $6.00 worth of billable time. We really have bigger things to worry about, like all these dumb BluRay discs going to landfill in five years when Sony decides to invent the next pointless proprietary format.
If this were a goddamned bank charging higher fees, I'd be supplying the soapboxes and ammo, but this is Netflix. Come on guys, they're actually doing a pretty decent job of taking our entertainment into the internet age, something the content providers would never have done on their own.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Pretty soon everyone will already have their own personal NetFlix. There are only about 5TB of movies (US english) anyway, it takes only a few months to download every movie ever made. It takes even less for TV shows.
Have they addressed subtitles for streaming yet? In particular, subtitles for the hearing impaired: english subtitles for english language shows.
Also, are they ever going to support linux?
If they addressed those issues, I'd be happy to use streaming rather than disks.
A month ago, after observing Netflix's rollout and defense of their "upgraded" web site, I predicted that Netflix was already doomed.
A huge customer-hostile price hike like this, and the way they're handling it, are indicators and warnings that tell you a lot about the corporate culture of this business. This one is a culture of incompetence. They are successful (so far) because they were in the right place at the time with the right business plan (at the time). It's not because they're smart. And the fact that they would jack their prices so high so quickly and try to spin it as "new lower prices!", and more importantly, that no one in senior management said "Hold on a sec, no one's going to fall for this, and people are going to hate us for it," is proof of that. There's no one in charge there who realizes just how professionally inept their staff are. I gave more examples and evidence before, but here was my conclusion last month:
Substitute "price hike" for "UI change" and it's just as true today. So if anyon on /. has Netflix stock as a long-term investment: I've warned you twice now. :/
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Never managed to get a reasonable feed even though I can routinely download at 5+ Mbps. The quality of the streams was abysmal, there were no subtitles and it was hard to FF or RR. I am quite happy that my 2 DVD's at a time price is much lower. DVD's come in, I watch them (occasionally I rip them to my ipad), return them and I am a happy camper... and much happier now that I do not have to pay for things I do not use (streaming).
Between the hideous new interface and more importantly netflix's complete dismissal of user feedback on it and now this price racketing, I would love nothing more than to cancel my subscription (well, actually I'd really love to leave a bag of flaming poop on their doorstep) and switch to something better. The problem is there currently isn't anything even close to what they offer that I am aware of (please do let me know if you've discovered something). They realize that they have established total dominance of the market (litmus for this is when apple starts advertising access to your content when selling their services) and they are being down right malevolent about it. Jacking up prices is one thing - it's a bummer, but if you can get away with it based on your monopolization of the market, go for it I guess, but ignoring the voice of the vast majority of your subscriber base is the kind of hubris that will lead to netflix's collapse as soon as a smart new startup is ready to tackle the market. Let's hope it happens soon.
ôó
Here's my question... I stream on multiple devices, and the number of streams I could run simultaneously was equal to the number of discs I had out. I was on a two-out plan just to be safe in case a roommate decided to watch something at the same time as me.
So now that they're untying the discs from streaming, does that mean there's no longer a limit to the number of streams I have out?
Or would it be cheaper to have two $7.99 streaming plans rather than my new $20 plan?
Note that it was the content publishers charging Netflix more that caused this, not Netflix being greedy. Regardless a 5 dollar increase isn't the end of the world, especially considering back when Netflix was DVD's only and you got no streaming it was 20-something a month. Since I never get around to watching the DVD's I get I've just switched to 7.99 streaming only, so basically Netflix saved me money by reminding me I don't need the DVD's.
I get an excellent feed and I only get ~70KBps, quality was real good. Not sure what your problem is.
I don't want streaming I want the DVDs. So my bill just went down 3 bucks.
I rent 6 dvd's from Netflix, my plan went down 12 cents. W00t!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Oops... just lost another dvd.
I'm not giving up blu-ray for SD streaming with no surround sound. If they had all the titles on streaming in at least 720p, it might be a different story. And I'm sure not paying them $6 more a month to keep both.
http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_C64.aspx
C64 is back, as well as Amiga
About Netflix, I'm thinking I may cancel. Our netflix is going up $5 a month for stream + 2. Definitely cancelling cable TV, but keeping cable internet. I haven't had any trouble finding things I want to see elsewhere online. If I come across something I can't find, I can do without it, it's just tv and movies after all.
Cancelled our subscription today, but not over the price increase, but rather them making the interface almost unusable. Love Netflix, but not sure the limited streaming selection is worth $8 by itself. Perhaps if they use the higher prices to bring in more selection, and fix the $%^& interface we'll buy again.
I wanted to telephone our good friends at the Netflix to let them know that 2 short years ago I had a 3 DVD at a time unlimited streaming plan that charged $16.98 per month. At the same price point I have successively lost 1 DVD per year. That means in two years I will have to start lending Netflix DVDs from my own collection. There was a problem with my telephone call, "Netflix is experiencing unexpected call volume please call back later. ." Somewhere a pencil-necked accountant or MBA is about to be fired. My account can't change until my September billing, however, if there is no drastic improvement to the available streaming content we can kiss my 10 years or so membership good-bye.
I've been with Netflix for nearly 7 years and thought my business was appreciated. This recent boost, however, is pretty steep. I toyed with the idea of simply canceling my subscription but since my kids like it, I am moving reducing my subscription from 3 DVDs/month to 1 to keep the same monthly fee. They must have some idea of the exodus this will spawn.
I cannot say how much of this boost is in response to greed or increased license fees. I can say that another price hike WILL have me explore other options.
I really hate paying more and getting less of the same product.
Now I just need to FIND that one DVD I have lying around...it's probably been lost in the year or so since I last bothered to send it back. Seriously, I've been hoping they would introduce an (even if only slightly) cheaper streaming-only plan for quite a while now.
You have victim issues. Netflix is going to go up, there is no way to avoid it. It will probably go up in another year ot two, which no doubt people such as yourself will once again take as an assault on yourselves. And drawing inference from what they failed to point out on their blog is just plain stupid.
I'm not really angry at what Netflix is doing, but I don't see an added value to the additional cost, and I've been thinking of canceling for quite some time now. This gives me the reason I've probably needed. Years ago, Netflix tried to raise their prices at once, and the customers rebelled, not by quitting but by cutting down their services (if they were on 3 disks at a time, they cut down to 1 at a time, so that Netflix's profit was cut even further). Netflix realized the mistake they made and went back on their cost increase and discontinued it. Customers slowly returned to their normal services. Not long ago, Netflix did it again, but they did it quietly, and most people went along with it, figuring the cost increase was inevitable. This, however, was so blatant that I would not be surprised if this is the thing that defeats Netflix like Blockbuster and Redbox never could. After I finish watching the TV show I'm currently watching, I'll cancel. I'll always be grateful to what Netflix was, but it was a business, and what Netflix and the studios haven't figured out is that they're not a necessity but an alternative form of entertainment. I can find other avenues of entertainment without them. Thank you.
Sarbonn's blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/blog
Check out http://bit.ly/qXUP6c Care to post your reaction? Too bad. "Reached maximum number of comments. No more comments can be posted."
People in US use deprecated technologies. Mandarin/Hindi/Russian speaking people watch movies online for free. There is number of web-sites where you will find ALL movies from at least top 1000 of IMDB. And it's all for free! And most of them not Flash, but iPad-able HTML5 streams. Some banners, but who cares (with Adblock+). So, learn Mandarin or Russian, it's worth it!
I can go to Redbox and get a movie for $1. And it's already at places I go frequently (grocery store, McDonald's).
But do you visit (grocery store, McDonald's) daily, or would you have to make another trip to return a DVD that you have rented?
I plan on canceling my DVD part too, but also plan on keeping the streaming only, and Redbox if i need something that isn't streaming.
What do you plan on doing to watch a film that happens not to be on Netflix and is also too old for the new-release-centric Redbox?
Am I the last person on earth not streaming movies?
Seriously, I don't get the appeal. Ok, you get a big library... that looks like crap. Or maybe everyone is watching all their movies and shows on tiny laptop screens now with headphones?
Even on my "small" 40", streaming Netflix looks horrible. The insane compression, 2-channel audio... ugh. I have 7.1 surround sound... which isn't uncommon these days with all the HTIB kits (mine was not). Let alone my 92" projector setup. The home theater technology improves, while the content technology migrates towards streaming and lower quality.
What the hell?
It's like video is going the way of music. People are accepting a huge paradigm shift into lower-quality for the sake of convenience. And if you're not streaming, people look at you like you have 2 heads. "What's wrong with you?" It's like trying to stay off Facebook.
I am not sure either, but it has never worked for me... In any case, I prefer the DVD's and the plan is now cheaper for me.
Netflix won't support Linux even though there compatible plug-ins. They could even get the security in place. They won't even consider it. Just another company that doesn't care about flexibility for the customer.
Ironically, I have a PS3, but I need to update the firmware to use it. I don't want to update the firmware because it would cause me to lose my Linux install. It seems Microsoft owns everyone. Sony owns everyone else.
So, since I'm not giving up Linux or installing Windows for anyone, I guess I'll save a couple bucks and drop the part of the service I'm not using. They keep screwing up, I'll leave altogether and go with an option that actually has recent movies.
nm
Ops, I shuld have usd the prevuwe but in.
Their wording tricked me for a few minutes, but it just dawned on me what they actually did:
1) free streaming videos added to your subscription!
2) You can have streaming alone for $8 a month, or pay $2 extra to add it to the 1-dvd-out plan
3) Forget that, streaming is just another option you can pay for, sucks to be you if you want both.
My guess is that they will either give people a discount for having more than one plan under the same account, and/or they will create a new plan with streaming and a limited # of DVDs per month, for example, to fill the $10-$13 price range.
I'm not a bird, I'm a super-advanced flying stealth dinosaur!
This is going to be one of those failure-in-management stories that MBA students will study in a few years. Right there next to New Coke.
Ha, ha! Nobody ever says Italy.
Yes, the result is higher cost (which is never welcome news) to subscribers of both DVDs and streaming. Like me.
BUT... the reason they can and will increase the price is that it's still worth it for the vast majority of their subscribers. Like me.
And given the absence of competition, its a wonder they haven't done this sooner, or more often.
Last week, a friend and I were marvelling at how they can afford to sell streaming and up to 7 or 8 DVDs a month, postage-paid, for $10.
Netflix is a remarkably well-run service, and we're lucky to have them around.
Now you are paying the same amount as before but they're providing you less.
The price for the DVD-only plans are $2 less than the combined plan used to be.
The price for the streaming-only plan is $2 less than the combined plan used to be.
The price for the DVD-only plans are less expensive than they ever were before streaming was introduced.
The price for the streaming-only plan is the exact same price as the streaming-only plan has ever been.
The price for the combined plan is $4 more than the old combined plan.
No possible choice of plan will get you less service for the same amount of money. Most will give you less service for less money. One choice will give you the same service for more money.
$15.99 for netflix or $9.99 for a good newsgroup feed? Thanks for making this decision a lot easier netflix!
I cancelled Netflix ages ago. They have always promised more than they could deliver for the money. I had the 3 out-at-a-time unlimited plan and cycled through the DVDs quickly. We did not have cable and My wife, I, two teenagers, and two young kids watched a lot of movies. When they throttled me and it started taking a two weeks to replace DVDs mailed back to Netflix, I gave them the finger and dropped my service.
We started visiting Family Video. It cost more, but we got 6 DVDs a week instead of 6 DVDs a month.
In terms of their streaming selection, it's not missing "oddball movies", it's missing a ton of movies. Try searching for the Lethal Weapon series, I think they had one of them...I wanted to watch "Under Siege" and found they didn't have any Steven Seagal movies. Please don't interpret that as my taste in movies, just making a point. They're missing a ton of movies I'd expect them to have. If I had to guess, I'd surmise that they have maybe 5% of their DVD movies available for streaming... A quick Google tells me that there were about 400 movies released in theaters in 2010. If we assume that's about average, then we can determine that over the last 30 years, there have been about 12000 movies that were good enough to come out in theaters that people might want to stream. Figure about 2-3 GB of storage per movie and we arrive at a figure of approx 24-36 TB to store every movie that came out in a theater in the US in the last 30 years. Maybe it's just me, but that does not seem to be an unreasonable amount of data for Netflix to be storing. If we also factor in that there are movies in that list that Netflix doesn't have licensing to stream, and that there are also movies in there that totally bombed the box office so probably aren't worth having, and the figure comes down some. So, megacorp Netflix could have every movie from the last 30 years for, let's be generous and call it 50 TB. I realize that means 50 TB of data at a whole bunch of different CDNs, but still, that doesn't seem that unreasonable to me.
I was pissed that last round of price increases because they didn't offer a DVD only plan. Streaming basically sucks. Lousy quality, often stereo sound and NOT the content I want. Less than 10% of my queue was even available for streaming.
Now I've got a DVD only plan again without paying for that useless streaming service.
YAY.
The idea that streaming is the future - not in it's current form, that's for sure.
This is nothing new lately I have noticed everything getting a little more expensive from Gas to Netflix. It may be time to raise my rates.
Chris Sheppard
Thanks! I could not agree more with you. I am happy about the change.
Verizon anyone?
All I see going on here is people whining about a price increase that you should have seen coming a long time ago. Please keep in mind that even in 2011 most internet based business models are still experimental and are subject to change. Netflix was always a deal to good to be true - but they tried. People have always complained about a lack of streamed movie options and the occasional unavailable DVD. Do you not understand that it takes money to offer more movies wether DVD or streaming? Do you not understand that more streaming increases infrastructure and other IT related costs? Do you not understand that what they are offering is still a good and competitive deal?
Further, I see an enormity of posts saying "Well I'll just ditch Netflix and go to Bittorent to pirate my movies for free and so should everyone else." Do you honestly believe that you are taking the moral high ground by stealing?
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.