Netflix anounces price increase for all accounts. No more $9 Streaming and DVDs

[Oneslowz28]

Just wanted to pass this along to everyone. It affected me by almost $8 after taxes. So since I do not stream much, I went to the 3 DVD only plan.

http://blog.netflix.com/2011/07/netflix-introduces-new-plans-and.html

Basically they are splitting the DVD and Streaming plans and charging $7.99 each for them. So if you use to pay $9 you will now be paying $16 for both and if you get more than 1 DVD at a time the price continues to go up.

[x88x]

They changed them a while back too, but to much more reasonable prices. That's weird that they're effectively doubling the price of what I would imagine is the most popular plan. I actually went the opposite direction of you and went just streaming. ;)

[Oneslowz28]

Well for some, this will save a hundred+ dollars a year, for others who need both features it will cost an extra hundred+. The original post on Google+ that Chris Parillo posted got about 200 comments in just a few minutes and most said that they switched to just streaming. I was paying about $24/month and now that I removed streaming I am only paying $15 for 3 dvds at a time bringing my annual cost of $288 down to $180. If I down grade to 2 dvds at a time @ $11/month I will effectively save $156 a year over what I have been paying for the last 2 years.

[Oneslowz28]

Netflix also dropped windows media center / player support. My frined Sean Kalinich covered it on his site.
http://www.decryptedtech.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=164:netflix_winmce&Itemid=180

[Mark_Hardware]

I still use WMC for Netflix...

I believe this is a first step in Netflix phasing out the DVD portion of their service. I read an article a while back that said eventually Netflix wants to be streaming only, as the cost effectiveness of dvd shipping decreases.

[CorsePerVita]

It was good while it lasted. It'll eventually get higher and higher. Netflix actually uses a very good portion of the bandwidth for everyone's ISP. They are quite a heavy load. With that the data usage is high when you add up each subscriber.

With companies threatening to charge them for usage because of their bandwidth, and with usage rights and things along those lines going up for them, at some point, they have to carry the cost of the burden to someone... and that would be the customer.

[Fuganater]

Ya I told my wife to cancel our streaming and just do 4 DVD's. Save a few bucks.

[Oneslowz28]

At peak hours Netflix streaming makes up 20% of all US internet bandwidth. I will leave that math up to someone else.

[xr4man]

:shoed:

[x88x]

I believe this is a first step in Netflix phasing out the DVD portion of their service. I read an article a while back that said eventually Netflix wants to be streaming only, as the cost effectiveness of dvd shipping decreases.
Agreed. I was reading a thread (or whatever they're called) on Google+ about this, and someone brought up a good point (albeit, I think, accidentally). Basically, they said that they were going to drop the DVD portion of their plan and use Redbox instead. What I think a lot of people aren't considering is...maybe that's exactly what Netflix wants people to do. I saw an interview with the creator of Netflix a while back, talking about the past and future plans for the company. What he said then was that the goal had always been to be a streaming-only company, but that when they launched the rights-holders weren't ready to support streaming. As they now get more and more of their library available for streaming it makes sense that they will start phasing out the physical DVD service. Not only does it streamline their business model, I'm sure the DVD service costs a lot more to run than the streaming service. With Redbox becoming more prolific, it makes sense that they might try and offload some of their DVD customers onto them. Besides, from the customer's point of view isn't Redbox better? If you just make sure you return the disc the next day, it only costs you $1 per disc, so unless you get more than 8 discs a month it's cheaper than the Netflix 1-at-a-time plan. You don't have to wait for the disc to come in the mail, you just pop over to the nearest box that has the disc you want and go. IDK about anyone else, but 90%+ of my movie/etc watching is on impulse. If I have to wait for a few days to watch something, chances are I'll just watch something else instead. The only reason I could see it not filling the void is for older and obscure titles that Redbox might not carry.


At peak hours Netflix streaming makes up 20% of all US internet bandwidth.
Mwuahahaha! Yees...dance, my pretties, DANCE! :twisted:

[Oneslowz28]

I average 24 disc a month and have hit 27 before.

Actually the netflix streaming library has decreased in size in the last few months. If its on STARS Play, or is a Sony Licensed disc it went away. They lost something like 30% of their streaming movies. Also if it is a new release you will not get it for streaming for a minimum of 30 days after release and in some instances it could be 90 days. They really have let their whole business model go to crap. If it were not for their huge disc library with almost every older movie I would like to see, I would drop them all together.

If you watch 10 or so movies a month and can get to Red Box's website quick enough to reserve a copy of the new release you want to see then that would work out great, but for me I am way to busy to take a trip to redbox, sort through the movie list, and then take it back the next day. I can update my netflix queue from my Android phone as long as I have some sort of data connection. This means I can add movies as I think about them and I can check to see whats up next or pull something from the bottom of the queue to the top.

At $15 for 3 DVDs at a time it's still worth it for me. I usually have a 1 day turn around on my dvds and as long as that stays true and they do not throttle me like they have other customers, then they will keep getting my $15/month. (Are you reading this Netflix?)

[x88x]

Haha, ok, fair enough. That's a lot of discs each month. ...I suppose I may be a bit of an odd case in that in the ~2 years I've had a Netflix account, I've only ever had them send me one DVD. I got it specifically for the streaming, so it didn't really affect me when I dropped that part. I actually hadn't noticed that their Starz-play and Sony streaming had gone away. That sucks, but I can't say I'm really surprised, given Sony's past behavior on similar matters...and to be fair, after looking into it, it really doesn't make financial sense for Starz to continue their deal with Netflix. I just hope they don't do what HBO has done, and limit their online offerings to only cable customers.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/06/netflix-users-see-starz-over-disappearance-of-sony-movies.html

[JaredG]

A few cents increase could have been tolerable for a while, but their price hike this time is a little too much for entertainment. I decided it's better to go for streaming alone, it works for me good enough at 7.99. I can't deny that they still have some value compared to other brands offering similar services but meh, I have a lot other options if I want some fun.

I came across some article discussing the best choice among the plans offered by Netflix by details, so for those who wants to earn good value with their services it's a pretty good read: Surviving the Netflix price increase (http://personalmoneynetwork.com/moneyblog/2011/ 07/13/netflix-price-increase/).

[NightrainSrt4]

I never really got into netflix. I tried the free streaming trial and there just wasn't very much I was interested in watching.

I've got a redbox literally across the street from my apartment, and our library does 5 day bluray rentals for $1 and they usually have a pretty good selection and movies that just came out.

I remember the talks about netflix increasing in prices. It seemed less like they wanted to and more the big companies charging them more to have their content so they needed to make up the difference somewhere.

[CorsePerVita]

Wow 20%? I knew it was high but I couldn't remember how high it was. I heard anything from 20-40%, but 20% sounds more realistic since something as high as 40% would be... insane...

Still, 20% is HUGE if you think about it. Man.... that's intense. Now, on a single basis... think of what that must do to an ISP at peak times.