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Why Netflix Had To Raise Its Prices
sperlingreich writes "Last week, after movie streaming service Netflix raised its prices by 60%, the company's customers took to blogs and social networks in revolt, threatening to cancel their subscriptions. However, between the cost of mailing DVDs and paying increased licensing fees for content, a Netflix rate hike was inevitable. Is it still a great movie bargain? What alternative services are there?"
It was the manner and the margin by which they did it. If they'd done it slowly, say $2 now, $2 more in 6 months and $2 in a year, people might complain but not nearly as much as $6 all at once.
My cable company wants much more than $16/mo to get the various premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.). $16/mo is a good deal to be able to watch what you want, when you want.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
The Pirate Bay.
I find plenty to do without going to first run movies or event renting movies.
To be brutally frank with you, much of what comes out of 'the industry' these days have very little to keep me engaged.
So, I take the money I save by not subscribing to movies and tv and engage in hobbies that keep me engaged and creative, such as these at http://www.allyn.com/
Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
Rapidshare, Filesonic, Megaupload and JDownloader?
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Never been known to fail..."
Years ago, I began using hulu to catch up on Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" before I started using Netflix to watch other shows. They have a smaller selection of titles, but for what they do have, new episodes of current series are available usually the day after they air on the regular networks. the annoying thing with Netflix is that it seems they wait for the DVDs to be available (regardless of anything else) before they make the streams available.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
nuff said :D
I hope you get a particularly nasty and painful form of cancer...
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
So in Canada we've only ever had streaming for $8 a month. So what's the big deal? "Basic" cable is around $60 a month now. HBO is another $12 a month. etc.
Well, this 2 part question deserves a two part answer
If you had a $14.99 plan for 1 out at a time and unlimited internet videos You can on average turn around 1-2 dvds a week for 4-8dvd’s mailed a month And unlimited instant watch to an eh connection of movies/tv shows.
Total: 4-8 + unlimited = $14.99 While redbox which has been Netflix’s number 1 competition for the last 6years. It’s 1 dvd for $1 with a $1 a day late fee, which means you could rent 30 dvd’s for $30 at 1 a day
To beat Netflix you would need to rent less than 14 dvd’s a month, and with the selection of Redbox locations only being updated 4 times a month (at best) you would also need to expand your searching locations, which would bring in paying gas prices. So..
Netflix 4 to 8 + unlimited IW = $14.99 Vs. RedBox 15dvds + (gas for driving @ least avg2-4miles both ways [4-8total, avg. gas price $4 a gallon, 30mpg car]) $.75 = $11.25 + $15 = $26.25 Which means you would actually only get roughly 7dvd’s from Redbox for the same price.
With all that money the lawyers and lobbyist need to eat. Please somebody think about the lawyers!
Poor schmuks.
http://saveie6.com/
I don't really care *why* the price is almost doubling for my plan from what I was paying last year, only that it is. And like TONS of customers, I am going to drop half of the plan. The half I am choosing to drop will be the streaming. In my case, I am not worse off than before. My pricing will be about $1 less per month than when they added streaming in the first place.
Anyway, I can understand why many people are very unhappy about it. I can also understand why it makes sense to separate the plans and have customers pay for what they use (I am not a fan of "bundling" in the first place). However, I see that for many customers, this really is a HUGE and unreasonable price jump.
Why don't these same people complain about the federal budget as much as they have with Netflix?
Jonathanjk.com
The timing of the closure of Blockbuster and the rate hike has the cynic in me fired up.
1) There PR guy was a jackasss and talked down to people.
2) They didn't tells us why.
3) we still don't know what their increased costs where. I think. My cost to mail something didn't go up 60%.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Off the top of my head? Hulu Plus. On my Sony TV and blurrydisk player there's Qriocity and three or four others.
I have no idea what the selection is like on Qriocity or the others. I don't really watch that much TV to begin with and I'm just not curious enough about it to (pay money) to find out.
It's misleading to say that they raised their rates by 60%. They did I suppose if you only have the unlimited 1 DVD plan + streaming. Going by the outcry I suppose there's a lot of people who have it. However, my family has the 4 DVDs + streaming plan and the price will be going from $27.99 to $29.98 a month. That's less than a small latte from Starbucks.
Instead of screaming at Netflix and throwing tantrums comparing the price increases to rape (google it, it's really sad) I wish these people would start screaming at the media companies to get some sort of reasonable pricing and access to streaming media. This whole sending me physical pieces of plastic through the mail is getting old! It's 2011 for crying out loud! Not only is there a terribly small amount of things I can stream through Netflix, but things disappear, almost always with little warning. My streaming queue has over 200 titles that are in the saved section because they were available once but are now not.
I understand what's going on behind the scenes, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
My cable company wants much more than $16/mo to get the various premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.).
My cable company won't even let me add HBO or Showtime unless I upgrade to a higher "tier" with dozens of channels I won't watch. Right now my family is on the $60/mo Digital Starter tier because that's the cheapest with ESPN; Comcast wants us on the $80/mo tier before it'll let us add premium channels.
I have relatives who will never use the streaming (they are still getting used to DVDs). For them, it is now cheaper. I am moving strictly to streaming, but the selection is thinner than their DVD collection. So, I will take a hit. Since I dropped cable in favor of Netflix and free OTA HDTV (50+ channels), I am still ahead.
How many of these 'Why Netflix raised their rates' articles will Netflix PR department spawn?
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So now it's $50-60/mo on internet plus $16/mo for Netflix, $8/mo for Hulu Plus
I've recommended this to a couple families, and both told me they'd rather go back to dial-up than give up ESPN.
Get a better cable company then.
It costs thousands of dollars to move to an area serviced by a different cable company. How do you expect most people to be able to afford this?
So the blurb here was all the information that was actually published in that article. Does a brief comment that adds no information actually need to be posted as a story? I thought they were going to put out some numbers. The article headline seems to be misleading in that there doesn't seem to be any actual content, unless I'm missing something.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
What increase was there in the cost of mailing DVDs?
The United States Postal Service raises its rates over time due to increases in motor fuel costs and labor costs.
How much does adding the movie channels to your cable package cost per month; how much does OnDemand cost per movie?
I'm a European. I recently tried netflix using a multi-hosted VPN supplier. After all the hype I had been reading online I was sorely disappointed. It was very hard to find a movie that I would like to watch (again).
And then there was the technical execution. Silverlight? For real?
And not just silverlight.. it needs to load hundreds of thumbnails before it wants to start playing to stream, so that seeking can be done in a more pleasing way. Nice thought, except loading those damn thumbnailds takes several minutes...
I give this service a grade 2 out of 5. Meanwhile, you americans should check out Spotify, since it actually delivers...
The "Netflix rate hike was inevitable" link goes to a paragraph of text that really doesn't say anything more about the subject than what's posted in the summary. I suppose there's a link there to an audio monologue on the subject, but who wants to spend 30-60 minutes listening to the audio just to see if they have anything more to say there?
So at this point all we have is a vague argument that Netflix had to raise its prices because of the cost of mailing DVDs and increased licensing fees for streaming content. Let's dissect this:
Sending DVDs through the mail is what Netflix has always done. It is the core of its business. I haven't seen any news about a sudden hike in the cost of mail in the U.S. Yes, it's gone up over the last 20 years, but not since Netflix's last price increase about 7 months ago. Netflix is the postal service's life support. Without Netflix, the USPS isn't financially viable because so much written communication now takes place online, so the USPS is going to do whatever it takes to ensure Netflix doesn't send fewer DVDs through the mail. I consider this part of the argument debunked -- the cost of mailing DVDs did not force this price increase.
Netflix has progressively tried to steer customers away from the mail service, presumably because they don't have to maintain distribution centers around the country to stream videos, and they're worried someone else will beat them to the on-demand streaming party first. They want to own that party before the space gets crowded, and the easiest way for them to do that is to "convert" their huge base of snail mail customers to streaming. They started out by bundling it for free with your subscription, then offering it by itself, then disabling the ability to manage your DVD queue through the Netflix mobile apps...
The problem is that their streaming library is a fraction of the size of their DVD library. To fill in the gaps, they have to go back to the content owners and negotiate fees, and the content owners smell an opportunity to make a lot of money. Rather than use its size to convince the content owners that receiving a reasonable licensing fee for the content is better than receiving nothing at all and being left out, Netflix has decided it wants the content even if it has to overpay for it... Because it will just pass on the cost of its decision to the users. I'm sure someone at some high level meeting said, "wait, what if our customers realize this and flee?" and that's why they're providing the option to opt out of streaming altogether now. The customers who don't want to pay the increase can just opt out of streaming. The customers who are willing to pay the price for streaming will pad the pockets of the content owners.
I would seriously pay twice what I'm paying Netflix for now for unlimited streaming and if it helped provide a better selection.
Seriously.
Netflix is by far the best value on the Internet today.
That and they treat their employees with respect. Especially their customer service folks.
My Hulu Plus subscription isn't giving me shit.
On the one hand, one can choose to watch movies distributed by MPAA members. On the other hand, what? Can you think of a substantially cheaper way to produce feature films that are competitive with MPAA output in writing quality, acting quality, and visual quality?
News flash: we treat everyone that way now.
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No, it's not just you. It's blog spam and the link is at the bottom: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/why-netflix-raised-its-prices/
You're an idiot if you think it has anything to do with skin colour. There are violent and retarded cultures all around the world, gangs and drug users in every major city.
which is totally what she said
Did you really think $9.99/mo for 1 DVD at a time + all the streaming content you can eat was going to last forever? Those are *startup* prices. They do that to grow the business, then they jack up the prices when they need to be profitable.
And they're never going to include new releases in the all-you-can-eat streaming at that price.
I do wish they would stop changing the streaming / not streaming status of movies, however. It's frustrating when a movie that has been out for ten years, and was streamable last week, suddenly is not streamable. Can't say I understand the reasoning behind that, other than that their licensing just makes no damn sense.
It's a great alternative to netflix and searching icefilms on twitter shows it trends higher than netflix especially after the price increase.
That's the alternative I've been using since the increase.
Hulu's increase of commercials has severely turned me off of their offerings. I once watched a ton of stuff on Hulu, but now I stick to NetFlix or just do without.
It's quite jarring to be in the middle of an intense show and then breaking to an HPV commercial.
Method of processing duck feet
I think it's funny that people act like it's perfectly normal to send other people an extra $6/month and not expect anything in return, and yet nobody's setting up an automated paypal subscription to my bank account.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
Netflix has successfully executed the Wal-Mart business model.
1.) Move into an existing area where there is a well-established business model.
2.) Dominate the market with prices so low that the existing businesses cannot compete against you.
3.) Wait for your competition to give up/close up/go bankrupt.
4.) Raise your prices to normal market levels.
5.) Obscene profit!
No man is an island, But if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie them together, they make a pretty good raft.
Simple, Netflix's rent is too damn high.
The more you know, the more you have to say and the more you should listen.
And it's people like you who make the rest of the world think "WTF is wrong with you people?" If you fail to understand how the post you quoted was nothing more than 1930s style flamebait and racism, you are indeed just a depraved and worthless bigot.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Has anybody noticed they don't talk about DVDs by mail on their front page anymore? In the links to questions they talk about being able to add the option. Frankly my DVD watching has fallen off dramatically and I cancelled the plan and have gone streaming only. It seems everyday they have more and more options for streaming so I think they are a good deal. Between them and Hulu Plus you can get a lot for $16 per month.
in fact, they're going to save me a few bucks when i cancel the dvd portion of the service since i haven't gotten a fresh dvd in six months. their streaming might not have everything i'd want to watch all the time, but they always have *something* i'd like to see. and that's good enough for me.
Please stop with this.
Any time something goes up in cost while reducing quality you get your Stockholm syndrome folks who whip out this line, parroting the company's marketing droids.
Have you noticed that the streaming titles have gone WAY down hill.
It used to be that there was a pile of new stuff every Tuesday. What was running on cable movie channels closely matched what was on Netflix streaming. Now you get dubious foreign films, 6.02x10^23 singing cowboy movies and maybe just maybe a B-F grade recent release. This month's was some Ashton Kutcher movie.. Which looks like it has already been pulled.
So they are offering more Anime, this is the only thing that has improved. Streaming is filled with affordable rights titles. Why are they affordable? almost NO ONE wants to see 90% of them.
Not to mention that it was quite a while ago that they decided to withhold DVDs through the mail until they had been on the shelves/PPV for 3 FREAKING months.
So as we watched a service we liked go into the toilet is is nice to have the "He only hits me because he loves me!" crowd crawl out of the wood work to say that the price increase for this reduction in quality "Is less than a small latte from Starbucks!".
As long as there are people who parrot the marketing droids or just sit back and take it, this will keep happening.
As the MPAA/RIAA/MAFIAA intend to kill any goose who lays golden eggs unless they get 100-150% of the eggs, it may be time for me to learn to torrent.
The 1 oz flat rate hasn't increased since May 2009, and has increased only 10% since January 2006.
Try again.
Originally, streaming was offered as a free (and later, nominal cost) bonus to the disks-by-mail plan. At that time, Netflix had few streaming customers, and their streaming costs were low, so Netflix could afford to do this as a promotional deal to build the streaming business. But now the streaming business is built, and Netflix's licensing costs have increased 1000% or more. The costs maintaining of maintaining those licenses now approach the costs of maintaining and sending out the disks. Netflix was thinking the disk business might wither away as streaming increased, and for a while it seemed like that was happening, but evidently this has leveled out, and Netflix still faces substantial costs of obtaining, handling, and mailing out the disks. Many customers still value the disks, but Netflix can no longer afford to offer one service as a nearly-free bonus to the other. So we consumers have to decide whether both of these services are worth enough to us to pay what is (if you look at it in terms of Netflix's expenses rather than percentage increase over the original unsustainable deal) a fair cost to each.
For me, having both services, which together provide access to virtually every film on DVD, combined with the convenience of not having to drive somewhere to pick them up, is easily worth the extra 5 bucks a month. But I have 500 shows in my streaming queue and over 400 in my disk queue. Recent releases are a small fraction of what I watch, and if availability of a recent movie is delayed a month in return for more favorable licensing fees, I have plenty of other things to watch in the meantime. Your mileage may vary.
Not the same thing. Netflix is charging people more for an existing service. Subscribers' choice is to pay $6, or give up Netflix (which is presumably valuable to them, else they wouldn't have been paying for it). That may be worth it to some (though not all, of course). What you're proposing gives me nothing to gain, which is the same as with Netflix... but nothing to lose, which is not the same.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
I saved $2 a month because I cancelled the DVD portion of my membership. I had Blue Velvet sitting on my desk for 6 months and I never watched it. I'm not going to thank Netflix for the price increase, but in my case it is saving me money.
Yes this may be partially a joke but the price increase of Netflix means that if you want to be able to get new releases and have access to random stuff in a flash it is now cheaper to pay for an anonymous VPN service and use torrents instead of getting it legally.
They are just betting a relative minority of people go that route.
... and then a car commercial... and then a movie trailer... and then a reply of the same car commercial they just showed.
I avoid hulu unless a stream I want isnt working elsewhere. I have my eyes on you comedy central with your daily show and colbert streams.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
no offense, you cowardice piece of shit, but what the flying FUCK does this have to do with NetFlix. Seems like you have severe "inherent intellectual disadvantage that you either can't understand the fucking article, or your attention span is that of a warthog.
$16 a month = 16 movies from Redbox. $8 a month = 8 movies from Redbox.
I can't speak for the average user, as I am not one, but none of my friends watch more then a movie once a week, sometimes every two weeks. It's simply not worth it unless you don't have a Redbox near you. The selection on Netflix is pretty scant too. Newer releases almost never make it there in any timely manner, some never do.
The rate hike in my opinion is like what ISPs are doing. Since Netflix can't get you on late fees (by underselling their service), they attempt to sell so much of it that people won't use it. Putting it into perspective, at a Redbox price, $16 is roughly 24-30 hours worth of movies.
I think where Netflix really scores is TV series, where multiple volumes are required. That you usually can't get from a Redbox, that usually costs you an arm and a leg at normal Video store, and that's usually why a lot of people pirate. I wonder if they could make a correlation in here.
Have you gone to a zoo lately? What does the sign say about feeding animals? Yes, "Please do not feed the trolls."
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
the company's customers took to blogs and social networks in revolt, making empty threats to cancel their subscriptions.
FTFY.
I love how media consumers like to bitch about every little price increase (not that this is a small increase with NetFlix) and then threaten to leave. Make your idle threats all you want. It's become a case of the Boy Who Cried Wolf to those of us who work in such industries. You have to start actually canceling and citing the price increase as the reason why if you want any of the suits to pay attention. Otherwise, you're just "normal subscriber churn" to them.
In a world were cable and phone companies are constantly offering discounts for bundling, Netflix decided to "unbundle" it's streaming and DVD service, and then charge FULL PRICE for both. How f@cking stupid is that? They present it as $7.99 for streaming OR $7.99 for DVDs and if you want both you pay full price for both? How did that get out of a board room or marketing? Freaking idiots. All they had to say was (in best Steve Jobs voice) - "some of our customers only want streaming and some only want DVD's, so we're making it easy for either of them, pay for only what you want. It's only $7.99 for unlimited streaming or $7.99 for unlimited DVDs. For those who want both we're offering it at a discount, it's only $14.99 for unlimited DVDs and streaming." Yes, people would still be upset about the 50% price increase, but at least a few would spread the good word of choice and the bundling discount. Their presentation of this blew and they lost all good will. dumb@sses.
Cable still charges an arm and a leg. And personally, I prefer to watch a show from start to finish, one episode after another. Not really something you can do with cable which has commercials and you have to wait week to week for new episodes. Netflix still beats cable IMHO.
If a movie comes out in DVD form, it should be out in streaming form at the same time. If they want to eliminate physical DVDs then they also need to allow the streaming only to get the same movies, or else they should charge LESS for streaming since it has a smaller selection.
Why can't they have the DVDs ripped so you can stream the entire contents anyway? Lets say they have it so a certain number of people can check it out at once, and you only have access to that checked out disc, then you return it and check out a new one. It doesn't seem like it should be any different MPAA licensing than sending discs to people as long as they are only being viewed by as many people as they have purchased copies of the disc or licenses, or however they do that.
no downside and no negatives? What about the fact that dealing with a plastic disc is stupid? From the moment I saw two computers put together on a network in the 80's I was waiting for physical copies of media/games to go away. Now that all the technology is ready we are stuck behind stupid licensing and protectionist companies.
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We put up a real Antenna. We don't get ESPN, but our local sports teams are sharper on our HDTV than they were on cable. I don't miss the $60+ cable bill, and we gladly pay the $30 DSL bill. Our family spends more time on the net than watching TV, but know that is not mainstream. Yet.
I just don't like how when they announced it they made it sound like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread for customers. People don't like being lied to right to their faces.
the annoying thing with Netflix is that it seems they wait for the DVDs to be available (regardless of anything else) before they make the streams available.
That's most likely a result of contracting with the media companies. The studios do their best to manipulate the market for maximum profit (as any soulless corporate entity would). That means movies on the big screen first and TV shows air with commercials. After that it's DVD sales, followed by rentals, and finally streaming service taking up the rear.
10*1.03^10 = $13.439, not $16.
I had the streaming + 1 DVD plan for 9.99, and now I have the streaming-only plan for 2 bucks less. The way I travel all the time on the job meant that I wasn't really getting any value out of the DVD part.
Now if only Netflix would fix their streaming problem permanently. They seem to be down quite a bit nowadays, sometimes for hours. Maybe they can buy some better equipment with some of that $$ they're expecting to rake in.
Is Monday Night Football on ESPN3, or is it only on original ESPN?
our local sports teams
Unless you're following a sports team other than your local sports team, such as the professional team in the town where you grew up, the team to which your favorite player was traded, or the team of the college that your son or daughter attends.
are sharper on our HDTV than they were on cable.
Unless your team's game this week isn't shown on antenna TV at all because it's an ESPN-exclusive Monday night game.
what they did can be interpreted differently by different people.
here's my experience
1- I had streaming only before the price changes
2- nothing changed for me after the price changes
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I think AC's point is that you can use the proceeds from selling your current house to make a huge down payment on a house in the destination city.
and blockbuster took studios to court, and by the age of DVD in widespread release-- that was no longer applicable.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Netflix isn't raising prices just for the hell of it. Prices get raised for two reasons: 1) Increased upstream costs (passed on to the customer), and/or 2) Increase in demand.
The reality is, Netflix has run the numbers and they believe that the demand for their product is such that most of their customer base will be willing to pay the higher price. They'll definitely have some attrition, but that loss in revenue will surely be replaced by the increase in revenue from the customers that stay. Believe me, they've already run these numbers.
Netflix has a great product, it is served through far more mechanisms than it used to be (phones, gaming consoles, televisions, set-top boxes). As demand has increased, I'm certain their delivery costs have increased. As Netflix's demand has increased, I'm sure the entertainment industry has raised their prices to meet the demand. It isn't that big of a deal. Okay, yes, they could have done a better job of publicly positioning the price alterations, but so what?
In the end, we have a company that raised the price of it's higher demand service and lowered the price of it's lower demand service. Is this really surprising?
Blockbuster. $23/month. 3 movies out at a time, unlimited in store exchanges, 1 video game rental a month. Yes, there is no streaming but there are many ways for me to get movies online if I feel like it. Sure, the rentals aren't as good as Gamefly but for the casual renter of movies and games, Blockbuster is hard to beat.
We are in the golden age of video rentals any way you look at it. $16/month for unlimited movies? That's basically free. I'm sure some of the other old timers can remember renting VHS for 4 or 5 bucks for a couple nights with late fees being the full rental price.
The sad thing is that streaming rentals is limited and there may come a time where the general public rues the day that they let the video stores close down. It's kinda nice to be able to go for a drive, rent a movie or two, and pick up an ice cream cone on the way home. On the flip side, I will enjoy the day where streaming lives up to its potential and lets me watch whatever, whenever. I suspect I won't like the price, however.
The real reason Netflix did this was because many of not all of their license deals were cost-based on how many subs Netflix had.
By pissing off significant numbers of subs, and gaining metric tons of easy to find bad press, Netflix can now go back to the license companies and plead poor house and how they have lost all these subs and can't pay the higher prices the licensors want. Oh woe is Netflix! Have you SEEN the Facebook hate? How could even Sony want more money from poor old Netflix in their time of sorrow?
And for the subs, if they actually stick around and pay the higher price, then Netflix wins that way too.
So anyway, Netflix does the license dance and plays poor mouth and gets a good deal. Then they turn around and invite back all the "lost" customers with some sort of sweetheart deal.
By the time the license deals are up for renewal, then mailing DVDs will actually be dead and off the table, which frees up Netflix to spend money on streaming.
Netflix hits two goals on this: one, instead of paying out the rear for licenses, they could get a better deal, and two, they push along the eventual end of DVDs by mail.
Sig for hire.
Here is a possible scenario
Netflix bumps up its prices and builds up a large hoard of cash . . . .
Then the following might happen at a posh hotel/restaurant near you
"We at Netflix would like to offer your fine folks at the NFL an exclusive contract for so that we can have *exclusive* broadcast rights to all of your NFL football games."
"Well, what can you offer our viewers that our current TV network does not?"
"Total advertisement free coverage. In fact, this would be good for both your fans and your teams. You will no longer have to take time out in your games for commercial breaks. Your games will be shorter; your operating costs will go down and most importantly, your fans will like it." "Well, that seems to be a good deal"
And so, they sign up.
Now Netflix would be the exclusive carrier for NFL; no one can watch it without signing up with Netflix. . . . .
Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
physical dvd players with display on your local device. $0.83 to rent a dvd for 2 weeks. since it is physical dvd, they have new releases.
library is small but very current right now, constantly growing. i like. i cancelled nflx.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Surely Netflix could just do the same as apple or amazon and stream the dvd's they have purchased over the internet without doing a deal with the studios?
Have you noticed that the streaming titles have gone WAY down hill.
Have YOU noticed the streaming title selection is vastly superior to even a year or two ago?
There's no Stockholm syndrome involved, just a realization some studios are going to be stingy and Netflix will get what they can, when the can.
Not to mention that it was quite a while ago that they decided to withhold DVDs through the mail until they had been on the shelves/PPV for 3 FREAKING months.
That's not Amazon, that was the STUDIOS that decided Netflix was not going to get rental discs until three months after. That sucks but Netflix cannot change it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't know why this is modded funny, it's exactly what cane to mind when the news broke. When the price went up I switched to streaming only (Yes, i know that's exactly what Netflix wanted!) + TPB goodbye physical disks!
Netflix already was profitable.
Yes they were - under the old contract rates for content.
They would not be profitable under the new rates, now that the studios actually understand it's popular. They want a slice, a huge slice, of money for something they view as popular.
Be angry not at Netflix, but at the studios that call in an airstrike anywhere they hear of a goose about to lay an egg that seems it might be at all heavy.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I changed my subscription from 3 dvds + streaming to streaming only. Not to teach Netflix a lesson or because I was angry with them, but because the price increase made me really look at whether I wanted to continue paying that kind of price. If there'd been no price increase I probably wouldn't have given it any real thought and continued at my current subscription level indefinitely. Significant price percentage increases have the negative effect of making people actually stop to think about how much they're paying and for what, and most subscription services will end up the worse for that scrutiny.
I hated having to have a disc just to get streaming content... now I can have only what I want and effectively pay less for it.
to complain about any of my bills more than doubling.
I saw this (the original, not the remake) available via streaming in Netflix and put it in my Instant Que. A few weeks later, I went to watch it...not available. I had to get a disc sent to me because the capricious Content Lords think Three Card Monte is a legit business practice.
are data caps that will essentially kill Netflix streaming by adding a massive 'overage' fee by exceeding the limits. And of course, the nut-less FCC will do absolutely nothing in response.
I downgraded my subscription from 3 to 2 DVDs and turned off the Blueray option. So they will be getting a few dollars less a month from me even after the price increase.
I like traffic lights
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What you want when you want? Are we talking about premium CHANNELS? Channels in case you remember are not on demand...well on demand flip to the channel and watch what they have on at that time.
You do get some bonus streaming features (like HBO on demand). But no way does your on demand streaming options with the $16 month premium channel package compare to Netflix when it comes to selection.
Seriously.
As a Linux user I could not use their streaming service due to their use of Microsoft Silverlight. Yet I paid the same as other Netflix users who could.
Netflix never offered me a discount nor apologized for this inequity. This has been going on for years.
I was on the $10 a month plan --- 1 DVD out at a time.
Now I pay about $8 a month for the same service -- 1 DVD out at a time.
That happened because Netflix's new plan structures gave me a choice of $16 a month for DVD delivery and streaming.....with the option to buy DVD delivery or streaming separtley.
At last the inequity is settled.
I learned to like streaming from hulu and some other assorted sites.......that run just fine with Linux. If I find a streaming site that plays nice with Linux, does things as well as Netflix and is close in price I am dumping Netflix.
Too many years in paying the same as other Netflix customers who got more soured me.
" please don't leave those dangling quote marks, it breaks Slashdot!
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I would ditch Pirate Bay if I there was Netflix in my country. Hell, I would do that even if the price is twice it is now!
So say we all
The fact that Netflix is pretty much saying "LOL No, fuck you!" to all the outrage from its users about the increase. It has offered no apology or rational explanation for the spike other than the vague reasons it gives.
If this price increase doesn't hurt Netflix more than it helps, nothing will.
It may be inevitable that you have to raise your rates. But, you can go about it a little (lot) more pleasantly. You don't go out and dismiss it by saying oh it's just a couple of lattes. Sometimes it really is HOW you say it.
might have enough money to bribe the p***ks that be to allow to allow Netflix to be played on Linux. There is no reason it can't except for those who are forbidding it to be enabled on anything but an "Approved" operating system. Its not incompatible its greed from somewhere. Frankly, with the plethora of malware attacks where I work as the malware hitman (Malware Fixer/Remover) I consider windows a virus trap! I used to enjoy gaming and tweaking my windows but now I turn it on with a sickening sense of dread - am I going to be able to watch some show or play a game or am I going to have the joy of cleaning up yet another invasion? I don't have those worries with Linux - Yet! I would LOVE to be able to play netflix on Linux. For those with Netflix this is a show stopper - Literally!
www.Migrainesoft.com - Computer giving you a headache? We can fix that!
They overworked their stamp licking team and had to pay insurance costs for saliva gland transplant surgery.
Oh, you laugh. You wouldn't laugh if your tongue was as dry as the Sahara (pardon the cliche). You would _try_ to laugh, but all that would come out would be a puff of dust.
Dan
I think it's pretty funny that a Netflix ad appeared on my page to the right of this discussion...
I am not a number - I am a free man!
Really, if you look at the inflation rate the $15 I've been paying for 2-disk service for the last 5 years the price should be up to about $18+ right now. So yeah, they bumped it to $20, a buck an change over the inflation rate, and if they aren't going to increase it again for another 5 years, I'll still be paying less than I was when it started.
This is a whole lot of outrage about nothing. I love how people cry "60%!!!!1!1!eleventyone!!" when we're talking about $4. My cable compay was rasing my rate every year by $10. You could sign up and get a discounted rate for a year, then they would raise your rate $50 at the end of the discounted year, and you would have to call up and bitch at them so they would put you into the NEW discount rate for a year that is $10 over your previous discount rate. Ingenious. I dropped them after my last rate hike, I called their sales line and said, "I have $100 to spend on internet and cable TV, what can you do?" And they had no offers that would meet those requirements. So I switched to AT&T DSL for $45/month and Netflix for $15 a month. Speaking of which, I should go bitch at AT&T and see if I can get a discounted rate again.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
BSG. First four seasons. No commercials. 'Nuff said.
Vote with your wallets.
"Crude and slow, clansman. Your attack was no better than that of a clumsy child."
http://sickbeard.com/
-Xoltri
The article referenced in the summary says nothing. It just asks some rhetorical questions. Am I supposed to LTFP (Listen to the F-ing Podcast?). There are dozens of good stories about why Netflix is raising its prices. Why lead with that one?
They only raised the price 60% on some plans. Mine was about $24 or so (with tax) with 3 out, streaming, + Blu-Ray. I think it's going up about $4. Hardly 60%.
Is it:
1) NF pays content owner lump sum $X and gets right to stream content unlimited number of times within specific time period
2) NF pays content owner $Z lump sum and then $Y for every time content is streamed
3) Mix of the above?
My public library has a great selection of DVDs and they will even ship them to the library branch just a few blocks away from my house. Yes, they are not free (taxes, but I pay for it whether I use it or not so I may as well use it.
NetFlix had a sweetheart deal with the studios that gave the studios second thoughts soon after. It was inevitable that their costs would go up substantially as soon as the contracts were renewed. However it's also inevitable that much of the free or inexpensive videos and programs are likely to disappear in the not too distant future. Depending on the channel, Adds (and channel logos) are any thing from a nuisance to intolerable. Often channels will put a crawler across the bottom that completely renders text associated with the image unreadable. Sci-Fi and Weather channels are particularly bad, but many others are close behind. Even subscription movie channels have logos and adds, so NetFlix doesn't look all that bad and they have premium content at a fraction of the cost of cable or satellite. However even with high speed broad band that is many times faster than needed even for HD videos, I often find pixelization, breakups, and pauses when viewing streaming. I've never found the problem to be at either end but some where in the middle using tracrt. The same program/movie can be downloaded in a fraction of the time and played with no problems so the speed has to be varying while streaming. It could also be some sort of interference I'd much prefer the ability to download movies or programs to watch for a week or two before pitching them as there are few I'd want to purchase, but I also find streaming to be rather intolerant of interruptions where I may have to leave for an hour or so.