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Most Netflix Customers Don't Realize Prices Will Increase Next Month (time.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Millions of Netflix customers are about to start paying more to stream their favorite movies and TV shows -- and chances are, they don't even realize it. In May 2014, Netflix raised the price of its standard streaming plan for new subscribers, to $9.99 a month. However, the price hike did not apply to existing customers, who were grandfathered into their current rates of $7.99 a month for a two-stream, HD plan, Business Insider reported. Unfortunately, the good times are about to end for this customer base, which analysts estimate at about 17 million people, or 37% of Netflix's U.S. subscribers. In May, all grandfathered customers will be required to fork over $9.99 to continue to watch Netflix. Even worse, about 80% of those who will be affected by the price increase did not realize it was coming, according to research from JP Morgan.
Holy shit, after two years they plan on charging customers $2 more per month!
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
2 years ago, Netflix sent out an email explaining all of that, and avoided a backlash. I thought is was reasonable that they would wait two years to increase the cost to current customers, and in doing so gave me a lot of time to decide what, if anything I would do.
This isn't a story. If anything it was one of the first times that Netflix changed things the right way for once.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
One of the things with any cloud-based service (video streaming, AWS, etc.) is that prices are artificially low right now. AWS, Azure, Google Cloud etc. are practically giving away capacity to get companies hooked on their services. At the same time, all the VC-funded startups are subsidizing this cloud build-out so they can continue operating. Netflix and Hulu are pouring money into original content to get more eyeballs a la 1999.
The thing to consider is how fast the price on all these things will go up when Social Mobile Streaming Bubble 2.0 pops. I think this entire market is being propped up by the bubble and will have to come back to Earth sometime. Video streamers are going to have to increase their prices or not offer as much expensive content for the same price, and cloud providers are going to have to cut back on the freebies and crank up their rates.
True story ... I kinda forgot that Netflix was only charging me $7.99. I thought the price was ten bucks.
My bad.
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