Netflix basic plan just went up to $15.98

[Imagineer7]

Why? Even at $20/month you could conceivably watch 10+ DVD's and unlimited streaming. That works out to $2/movie, not including any that are streamed. You can't even get into one movie at the theater for that price. Even just watching one movie/month for 2 or more people pays for your subscription. I think any "change" you might see is to do away with the DVD option altogether and just stream.

Why would a company who's streaming content is pathetic do away with the DVD option? Also, who has time to watch 10 DVD's and Unlimited Streaming a month?

 

[bjgrazi]

I had liked Netflix streaming because whatever was on Starz was on Netflix. Well that changed, they blacked out Burlesque you couldn't stream it and there were a couple others that weren't streaming. They dropped a ton of movies. It was no longer worth it for us.

 

[kwelch10377]

Why would a company who's streaming content is pathetic do away with the DVD option? Also, who has time to watch 10 DVD's and Unlimited Streaming a month?

The point of them increasing the pricing is most likely so they can afford to greatly improve their streaming library, which in turn may allow them to get rid of DVDs.

I know plenty of people who could easily watch 10 movies a month plus watch streaming (myself inlcuded).

 

[SondraC]

I have been with Netflix for years, but I think Hulu Plus is looking pretty good!

 

[Imagineer7]

The point of them increasing the pricing is most likely so they can afford to greatly improve their streaming library, which in turn may allow them to get rid of DVDs.

I know plenty of people who could easily watch 10 movies a month plus watch streaming (myself inlcuded).

If their streaming library is sufficient to replace the DVD, then that's one thing. However they're NOT even close to being able to do that.

 

[kwelch10377]

If their streaming library is sufficient to replace the DVD, then that's one thing. However they're NOT even close to being able to do that.

I didn't say that their current library was close to being able to replace DVD. Raising the prices will allow them to invest in the library to make it so can replace DVD in the future. They are obviously not going to get rid of DVD until their streaming content at least matches their DVD content.

 

[Imagineer7]

I didn't say that their current library was close to being able to replace DVD. Raising the prices will allow them to invest in the library to make it so can replace DVD in the future. They are obviously not going to get rid of DVD until their streaming content at least matches their DVD content.

We shall see. I'm curious how many people will switch to the new 16 plan. I know I won't be.

 

[LuvOrlando]

You know, just this past week as I was driving by my now closed Blockbuster and getting annoyed my Netflix is now dragging its feet and thinking to myself how much I miss the old time video stores. We used to have loads of them, then Blockbuster drove them out of business only to raise their prices (odd how no-one called them on their business practices though ) and now that Netflix & Red box have driven the bloated Blockbuster out of physical stores there is an opening & its a big one. I really hope small businesspeople see the opening and fill it, I would love to be able to have an old time inexpensive video rental store where I walk in & pick from the selection. Just saying

PS- this is what my message says & I can't understand the second half of it. I don't know if it's that I have a migraine or if they are just incoherent. If someone can interpret please do:

The price of your Unlimited Streaming + 3 DVDs out at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will change to $23.98 () (plus any applicable tax) a month starting with your next billing period on or after Sep 01, 2011. If you select a new plan in the meantime, you will only be able to return to your current plan at the new price, regardless of when you make the change.

 

[Marionnette]

The kids and I have been using the streaming on our mobile devices and it's been working well for us. However, I will have no problem with dropping the 3-at-a-time DVDs that I currently have. I can drive to a Redbox in less than 5 minutes to rent a DVD for $1 when I want one.

I don't blame Netflix for the price hike but lately I feel like everyone is nickel and diming me to death...cable, cell phone, airlines. It's getting to be too much.

 

[palmtreegirl]

I'll be dropping the streaming part of the plan, there's just not enough of a variety available.

 

[mtemm]

PS- this is what my message says & I can't understand the second half of it. I don't know if it's that I have a migraine or if they are just incoherent. If someone can interpret please do:

The price of your Unlimited Streaming + 3 DVDs out at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will change to $23.98 () (plus any applicable tax) a month starting with your next billing period on or after Sep 01, 2011. If you select a new plan in the meantime, you will only be able to return to your current plan at the new price, regardless of when you make the change.

what it is saying is that if you switch from your plan to a different one now, before the september price increase, that is fine, but if you decide tomorrow that you want your old plan again, you won't get it for your original price, only at the higher september rate.

 

[kwelch10377]

You know, just this past week as I was driving by my now closed Blockbuster and getting annoyed my Netflix is now dragging its feet and thinking to myself how much I miss the old time video stores. We used to have loads of them, then Blockbuster drove them out of business only to raise their prices (odd how no-one called them on their business practices though ) and now that Netflix & Red box have driven the bloated Blockbuster out of physical stores there is an opening & its a big one. I really hope small businesspeople see the opening and fill it, I would love to be able to have an old time inexpensive video rental store where I walk in & pick from the selection. Just saying

PS- this is what my message says & I can't understand the second half of it. I don't know if it's that I have a migraine or if they are just incoherent. If someone can interpret please do:

The price of your Unlimited Streaming + 3 DVDs out at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will change to $23.98 () (plus any applicable tax) a month starting with your next billing period on or after Sep 01, 2011. If you select a new plan in the meantime, you will only be able to return to your current plan at the new price, regardless of when you make the change.

I think it means that if say tomorrow you decide to select a new plan and then the day after that decide to go back to the the plan you just had you will have to pay the new price the has already gone effect to for new customers, whereas if you just left your current plan alone the new price won't go into effect until Sept 1st. Clear as mud?


I don't think we will ever see the day of video stores again. The way technology has changed really won't allow them to come back into existance as they once were and there is no way if one were to open they would last very long. The cost is just to great to run them and the demand isn't there. I really don't think Netflix is choosing to drag their feet. Studios see an opportunity to make a lot of money off of Netflix and Netflix simply can't afford to pay the money they want right now (which is why they are lagging in avalibility of new releases and streaming content).

 

[LIDisneyFan]

I tend to agree, but this is how they are going to raise the money to do that. DVD delivery models are failing all over the country. They have to go to streaming to survive, but they have to raise capital to accomplish that.

To me, Netflix still seems to be the best option for this type of entertainment. Hulu and Blockbuster are less expensive, but offer far fewer selections. And cable/satellite companies have lost their minds with their pricing models.

I would pay even more for streaming content (from any company) if they improve their inventory. I am willing to see how this plays out over time.

For those who prefer DVDs, you may soon be out of options. All of the companies that offer that service are looking to get out - including Redbox.

I understand, but I don't generally pay more for a service that MAY improve in the future. I will stop paying now and then, should the offering improve to be worthwhile, add back on the streaming in the future. Raising capital in order to achieve a revised business model is what shareholders are for.

 

[golfgal]

Why would a company who's streaming content is pathetic do away with the DVD option? Also, who has time to watch 10 DVD's and Unlimited Streaming a month?

A lot of people. Between the 5 of us we watch over 20 streamed movies/tv episodes each month-mostly the kids. That works out to one/week for each of us.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I understand, but I don't generally pay more for a service that MAY improve in the future. I will stop paying now and then, should the offering improve to be worthwhile, add back on the streaming in the future. Raising capital in order to achieve a revised business model is what shareholders are for.

I understand. I hope that they survive. Their model is really the only threat that might help break down the monopolies that have been created in this industry.

 

[NotUrsula]

I understand, but I don't generally pay more for a service that MAY improve in the future. I will stop paying now and then, should the offering improve to be worthwhile, add back on the streaming in the future. Raising capital in order to achieve a revised business model is what shareholders are for.

I understand. I hope that they survive. Their model is really the only threat that might help break down the monopolies that have been created in this industry.

The thing is, they don't need the money to achieve a revised business model; they need it to achieve the business model that they started selling to streaming users in 2008.

FWIW, I negotiate content licenses for a living. (Not this sector; I do educational content.) I know how Netflix feels right now, because I've had this happen to me, too. I hear the phrase "brave new world" a whole lot these days, and the "brave" in question are the producers of digitized electronic content. They have completely redrawn the playing field in the past year, and none of us who are in the middle have the resources to keep up without either reducing service or increasing costs.

The thing is, without the content we have nothing to sell, so we HAVE to purchase the content rights. In the early days of streaming, before electronic on-demand media was proven to be a profitable product, producers were willing to let third-party wholesalers have the content at a discount because they wanted to test the market, and they wanted to do it without having to invest in the infrastructure that would be required for direct product distribution. That was the big picture about 3-5 years ago, when most of the contracts now in effect were signed. However, many of those contracts are expiring this year, and the market is now on a completely different footing.

As in all redistribution industries, we anticipate content cost increases and build those into our operating budgets. In my industry the usual wholesale-level increase is about 14% annually, which has been the case since about 1987. When I budget I factor that in, plus an additional 4% or so for unforeseen possible increases (the 4% is in a flexible category that can be moved back to content if it needed, since content licenses all must be paid in full in advance.) I can easily absorb an 18% hit without having to cut my service or raise my fees. I could probably even stretch that to 20% if I tried. However, there is NO way that I could absorb a 1000% increase from any of my providers; I would have no choice but to cut those resources, because that size increase would be more than 5X my entire operating budget. I've done it, but it isn't pretty. However, I don't work for a commercial entity; we can't sell shares and raise capital; we don't have a choice but to deal with the blow to our reputation.

Netflix doesn't have anywhere near $2B in assets, and Sony is just ONE of their content producers. The contracts are lined up like dominos, and their inventory costs are about to skyrocket by more than 1000% just to enable them to go back to the catalog status quo that existed 6 months ago. There is nowhere to run on this; they have to provide the content to stay in business, but they cannot buy the content without cash up front. They are going with the only workable solution, raising the cost to the end-user. Your 60% increase doesn't begin to cover the increase in their content costs; they are going to have to also raise money by other means. However, I suspect that they are going to have a bit of difficulty doing that, because I believe that this increase is the first of many shots across the bow that are intended to drive them out of the business entirely; the producers are trying to cut out the middleman and start selling directly to the consumer, and NetFlix and their ilk are a barrier to that.

Netflix and similar services are also now up against another rising tide: data caps. Many of the pay-TV companies are also the largest players in the high-speed home internet service business, and now that streaming has become a reliable delivery system, they are not about to give up their TV profits by letting people switch over to accessing ever-increasing selections of TV content via the internet without paying more for the privilege. If you start buying your HBO shows directly from HBO and not from your cable/satellite provider, then that provider will just raise your internet access costs to compensate. If they cannot do that and maintain a sufficient profit margin, then they will simply refuse to sell you the necessary bandwidth at all. (see Comcast for an example of this; they don't have usage tiers -- you go too high and that monopoly will cut you off.)

One thing that a lot of folks don't realize about the "cloud" -- you not only have to use bandwidth to download from it, but you also have to use bandwidth (more bandwidth, actually) to upload TO it, and all of that traffic counts against a cap. Someone mentioned HD video and Comcast's 250G cap: most users would would hit that cap after streaming around 40 HD movies -- while doing absolutly nothing else on line. If you use any cloud storage services, the real number is going to be more like 15 HD movies.

 

[Mickeyistheman]

I already updated my plan to just the streaming.

I had gotten The Town via DVD about 1 month ago and never was able to watch it.

So for me, it's not even worth it anymore to spend the $15 for the streaming and the DVD rental.

If I really want to see a movie right away I usually buy the DVD.

Also if you have cable they usually get the movies on pretty quick nowadays.

So its worth it to keep the streaming for $7.99. Hopefully like a PP said they will get more recent movies on their streaming so it won't be a big deal.

 

[timmac]

Though nobody likes price increases, I for one am not particularly bothered by this. Part of the reason the streaming library is somewhat lacking is the fact that the price point is so low; they simply don't make enough money to license a wider range of content.

*If* this ultimately leads to a path of having more recent content available for streaming, I'm happy to pay more for it. I think that's their goal in the long run... to phase out DVDs entirely in favor of streaming everything.

From a business standpoint, I don't see any surprise whatsoever in this; shipping DVDs isn't a very cost effective model... high costs and low profit margins. Business like Redbox have a far better model for DVD rentals.

Personally, I'm going to leave my plan as is, at least for the next month or two, but I may remove the DVD option entirely and just use Redbox for when I really want a particular DVD. That seems a logical way to do things.

 

[ChrisFL]

Though nobody likes price increases, I for one am not particularly bothered by this. Part of the reason the streaming library is somewhat lacking is the fact that the price point is so low; they simply don't make enough money to license a wider range of content.

*If* this ultimately leads to a path of having more recent content available for streaming, I'm happy to pay more for it. I think that's their goal in the long run... to phase out DVDs entirely in favor of streaming everything.

From a business standpoint, I don't see any surprise whatsoever in this; shipping DVDs isn't a very cost effective model... high costs and low profit margins. Business like Redbox have a far better model for DVD rentals.

Personally, I'm going to leave my plan as is, at least for the next month or two, but I may remove the DVD option entirely and just use Redbox for when I really want a particular DVD. That seems a logical way to do things.

I agree with this. I don't fault Netflix at all, honestly their offerings for the price has been VERY VERY cheap and I always expected the prices to go up because I knew it wouldn't last...its the way the movie studios run.

Even Hulu Plus has annoying (AND LOUD!!!) commercials between their shows and movies, despite paying a monthly fee. Their selection is also not very good for movies, though decent for TV shows.

I don't use redbox, but I noticed Itunes does have a lot of movies you can rent via download also, if your TV has an internet connection.

 

[ellenct]

I'm going to go to just streaming and do RedBox for something I really want to see right away.