Netflix Raises Prices for Some Subscription Plans

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In addition to Nextflix’s new $7.99 a month streaming-only plan, the company has also announced price hikes in a few areas as well.

Existing members will incur the price increases in January, while people who are new sign-ups will face the higher prices immediately. Netflix has more than 16 million members in the U.S. and Canada and predicted in October that it would gain another 2.1 million to 2.9 million customers by year's end. That means Netflix could enter 2011 with more than 19 million subscribers, doubling the service's size in two years.
 
Since the demand for it has gone up, now its time to milk the cow for all it can.
 
It cost them money to get more and more movies and to get more and more rights to movie to stream. So as long as we see the raise in price reflect more movies I am fine with a small price increase. Everything else goes up, why shouldn't we expect them to do the same. How many people are paying the same now for cable / satellite tv service now as they did 10 years ago?
 
Netflix said Monday that its subscription plan for unlimited movies and TV shows streamed over the Internet and unlimited DVD deliveries _with one DVD out at a time_ will increase by $1 a month to $9.99.

......

Netflix is spending heavily to obtain the streaming rights to more movies and TV shows to help lure more customers and shift more of its existing subscribers away from DVDs.

I highlighted the important part (at least to me).

They want to shift to internet delivery over physical delivery to lower their own costs.

Personally, I'm not really super interested in internet delivery. The quality isn't there. I spent $5500+ putting together a nice HT system. Why would I want to feed it a majorly compressed and inferior signal from the internet instead of very high bitrate data off of a blu-ray player (I really should update my sig, lol)?
 
Redbox is a far better option for discs at this point provided they carry the movies you want. I rarely manage more than 6 movies a month with Netflix's 1-disc plan, which at $10/mo works out to ~60% cheaper than Netflix for DVDs.
 
What they're not mentioning is that while the unlimited one-at-a-time plan is indeed going up by $1 (11%), the multi-disc plans are going up by ~18% mark.

If this is to pay for streaming licensing, why are the ones more likely to be using the physical discs the ones paying the higher percentage increase?

I would have suggested get rid of the single-disc plan, and make the cheapest plan two-disc $14.99 for all?

There's still the two-discs-per-month, one-at-a-time plan for $4.99 anyway. And the watch instantly only is still only $7.99 for people who only stream.

Those $7.99 stream licensing folk are now getting a free ride from the disc people.

Again: I would have suggested get rid of the single-disc plan, and make the cheapest plan two-disc $14.99 for all. Drop that $7.99 streaming-only plan, and $8.99 single-disc plan.

Keep the $4.99 for people like me who have trouble finding a movie or two every month on Usenet. ;)
 
They want to shift to internet delivery over physical delivery to lower their own costs.

Then again, why is the steaming-only plan price unchanged? Was $7.99 yesterday, and is still $7.99 today.

They need to pay more streaming licensing fees, and they're charging the disc people the money to fund this for the streaming people.
 
Redbox is a far better option for discs at this point provided they carry the movies you want. I rarely manage more than 6 movies a month with Netflix's 1-disc plan, which at $10/mo works out to ~60% cheaper than Netflix for DVDs.

For people in large cities who don't regularly shop at big box stores, redbox isn't even on the radar. I'm in the vicinity of a redbox station perhaps once ever other month. Without making special trips to the store (which would cost me more than the $1 rental fee in transit fares) I would incur $1/day rental charges. Also, redbox only carries new releases. With netflix, I have practically every movie ever made at my disposal- not just last summer's blockbuster. Frankly, I don't see how their business model is going to stay viable in the future.


Netflix streaming quality has only gotten better and will continue to do so. Their HD content looks pretty darn good, and I understand they are going to start streaming 5.1 soon. Once they start streaming 1080p at 5.1, there will no longer be any reason to ever have physical media. I think the transition will be close to complete sometime this decade.

I do hope that Netflix gets some competition. What I don't want is a streaming monopoly, or even a duopoly.
 
I am going to switch to the streaming only plan shortly. I currently pay $11.xx for 1 disc + BD Access and I haven't ordered a disc in probably 6 months.
 
Redbox is a far better option for discs at this point provided they carry the movies you want. I rarely manage more than 6 movies a month with Netflix's 1-disc plan, which at $10/mo works out to ~60% cheaper than Netflix for DVDs.

It depends.

I watch probably 4-5 blu-rays a month from netflix. Does red box even have blu-rays, I don't know, I never looked. Regardless, I like the convenience of having it shipped to my door. I live in a semi-rural area, the nearest redbox I can think of is 5 miles away at the grocery store. So driving there and back multiple times in a month would burn up the money in gas anyways, and would take longer than just having it delivered to me.
 
Then again, why is the steaming-only plan price unchanged? Was $7.99 yesterday, and is still $7.99 today.

They need to pay more streaming licensing fees, and they're charging the disc people the money to fund this for the streaming people.

Obviously to discourage the disc plan.
 
Just in time to help save Hulu (who just had a price cut on their premium service).
 
Obviously to discourage the disc plan.

If everyone jumps solely to the unlimited streaming plan, all of a sudden Netflix is only getting $7.99/month from everyone.

How does decreasing their profits help them to pay for licensing?

Again, they're taking from Paul to pay for Mary. After all, they already own the discs they're sending to Paul, and postage costs less than this price hike.

Although I'm sure this all came as great news to the USPS.
 
Netflix streaming quality has only gotten better and will continue to do so. Their HD content looks pretty darn good, and I understand they are going to start streaming 5.1 soon.
True, but not as good as cable which is not as good as Blu-Ray (Unless you have FiOS, or I think Cablevision).

Once they start streaming 1080p at 5.1, there will no longer be any reason to ever have physical media.
Not really, unless they offer 10Mb+ streams which they probably won't. The compression kills it for me at their current bit rates.

I do hope that Netflix gets some competition. What I don't want is a streaming monopoly, or even a duopoly.
True dat!
 
It cost them money to get more and more movies and to get more and more rights to movie to stream. So as long as we see the raise in price reflect more movies I am fine with a small price increase. Everything else goes up, why shouldn't we expect them to do the same. How many people are paying the same now for cable / satellite tv service now as they did 10 years ago?

pretty much my thoughts on it aswell. Netflix has been a great service and their streaming catalog as grown a lot since I first joined. As long as they keep improving the quality of the service and keep adding more content, I don't mind a little price hike.

They're doing a much better job than SiriusXM lately IMO (price hikes and crappier service/frequent outages)
 
I am going to switch to the streaming only plan shortly. I currently pay $11.xx for 1 disc + BD Access and I haven't ordered a disc in probably 6 months.
Netflix members since 2003. At one time I had the 3 disk plan and reduced it two during another price hike. Last year I went down to one disk out when they raised prices again.
Will probably follow suit and go down to streaming only and use redbox for physical as I only watch maybe one movie a month.
 
Not really, unless they offer 10Mb+ streams which they probably won't. The compression kills it for me at their current bit rates.

As consumer bandwidth grows, they will eventually be able to reduce compression more and more.
 
As consumer bandwidth grows, they will eventually be able to reduce compression more and more.

You're assuming that bandwidth will get cheaper, and won't be limited (capped).

If people start dropping cable/FIOS TV/etc. in favor of internet streaming, what do you think the carriers are going to do? Under the current implementation, you're paying the cable co/Verizon/whatever... to deliver the video direct to a set top box. If internet video takes the revenue away from them, but they are still carrying the content over their lines (internet lines), they are going to want their cut. You will see bandwidth metering/limiting with overages so they can make "their" money back that they lost.

In the end you'll probably pay about the same as now, but end up with a metered internet connection instead of your unlimited one of today.
 
I lov emy netflix. 1 disk +BD plan. Stream movies while waiting the 2 dyas for next disk to show up.

I watch enough movies it is more than worth it.

I wish I had invested in netflix a year+ ago. It's stock is rapidly/steadily climbing.
 
Netflix streaming quality has only gotten better and will continue to do so. Their HD content looks pretty darn good, and I understand they are going to start streaming 5.1 soon. Once they start streaming 1080p at 5.1, there will no longer be any reason to ever have physical media.QUOTE]

While their quality has gotten better, it's nowhere near blu-ray quality. Not even close.

The average bitrate of movies from a blu-ray is about 20 mbit/sec for the video stream only ( http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-movies-north-america/3338-blu-ray-movie-bitrates-here.html ). Add in HD audio for another ~4.6 mbit, and most blue rays are running at ~25 mbit a second.

There's no way netflix can *currently* deliver anything like that.
 
I love Netflix, I dont like price hiking, but it is still cheaper to spend and extra dollar on Netflix compared to the time and cost of gas driving back and forth to my closest Redbox. I usually get 2-3 DVDs a week on the single DVD plan because I live about an hour away from a Netflix distribution center.
 
Since the demand for it has gone up, now its time to milk the cow for all it can.

or maybe with that growth they are thinking of the shitload of infrastructure they are going to have to invest in.
 
For people in large cities who don't regularly shop at big box stores, redbox isn't even on the radar. I'm in the vicinity of a redbox station perhaps once ever other month. Without making special trips to the store (which would cost me more than the $1 rental fee in transit fares) I would incur $1/day rental charges. Also, redbox only carries new releases. With netflix, I have practically every movie ever made at my disposal- not just last summer's blockbuster. Frankly, I don't see how their business model is going to stay viable in the future.

I'm not sure if you quoted my post by accident or what, but nothing you said really addresses anything I said. Geography is obviously a concern for some people, but not one that I attempted to address. At face value, redbox is significantly cheaper. I also made a specific note of "if it provides what you need." Next time try reading aloud, I find it helps with comprehension.

It depends.

I watch probably 4-5 blu-rays a month from netflix. Does red box even have blu-rays, I don't know, I never looked. Regardless, I like the convenience of having it shipped to my door. I live in a semi-rural area, the nearest redbox I can think of is 5 miles away at the grocery store. So driving there and back multiple times in a month would burn up the money in gas anyways, and would take longer than just having it delivered to me.

This is a much more valid critique. Redbox BD selection is pretty horrendous, and the extra 50 cents per rental significantly bridges the gap I mentioned. Again, geography is not a point I addressed, but I do wonder if either of you even checked the redbox website to see where the nearest location is. You might be surprised at how many of them there are now. That said, nealric is right to wonder about the long-term sustainability of their model.

short version: redbox is cheaper, YMMV
 
or maybe with that growth they are thinking of the shitload of infrastructure they are going to have to invest in.

To me Netflix is still a fair price even with the rate hike.

$11.99 for the 4-5 blurays I watch a month is well worth it. Honestly, most content I only watch once. I don't need to own it. Id' rather spend 11.99 to see those same 4-5 movies than ~$80 for the same 4-5 movies, since I'm only going to watch them once anyways.
 
So at 19 million customers and a $1 increase (minimum) they will be bringing in an extra 19 million dollars a month. I wonder how much of that actually goes back into providing content.
 
So at 19 million customers and a $1 increase (minimum) they will be bringing in an extra 19 million dollars a month. I wonder how much of that actually goes back into providing content.

Again: two of Netflix's plans did not increase.
 
I also don't mind the little price hike. I've noticed Netflix is making big efforts to expand their streaming catalog and I find myself getting most of my must-watch new release blu-rays from redbox and streaming more of everything else on Netflix. My instant watch queue is like triple the size of my DVD queue now. I still have the 1 Blu-Ray out at a time so that I can watch things that are not available via streaming yet or that aren't carried in a redbox.

But I am starting to see a trend here, and the cable companies, studios, etc are going to get their money back somehow. I think we'll see even bigger Netflix price hikes soon due to pressure from the studios as well as the cable companies greatly increasing the cost of their internet services. In the end, we'll all get screwed.
 
My 3 at a time with bluray went up $3. Getting tired of these increases... Netflix's DVD spending is down 35% according to the article and my plan price goes up about 15% (not including the past increases). I wish I could opt out of streaming and it's associated cost.
 
or maybe with that growth they are thinking of the shitload of infrastructure they are going to have to invest in.


if only att would think this way people would be happy with the service they get.:D
 
I'm not sure if you quoted my post by accident or what, but nothing you said really addresses anything I said. Geography is obviously a concern for some people, but not one that I attempted to address. At face value, redbox is significantly cheaper. I also made a specific note of "if it provides what you need." Next time try reading aloud, I find it helps with comprehension.



Geez man. I hope you got your daily dose of feeling superior with that post. Your post said redbox was better. I discussed the limitations of redbox. Not complicated.
 
Geez man. I hope you got your daily dose of feeling superior with that post. Your post said redbox was better. I discussed the limitations of redbox. Not complicated.

what is wrong with you trying to bring logic into the descussion. ;)

I myself would just point out that i watch about 30+ movies a month on netflix via dvd and streaming so there is no way in hell redbox is far cheaper than netflix unless you just only watch 1 or 2 movies a week. but then i would be suffering from the same issue as you and bring logic into the decussion.
 
Taking a cue from the Obama administration Netflix has lowered prices for some, raised them for me.
 
I highlighted the important part (at least to me).

They want to shift to internet delivery over physical delivery to lower their own costs.

Personally, I'm not really super interested in internet delivery. The quality isn't there. I spent $5500+ putting together a nice HT system. Why would I want to feed it a majorly compressed and inferior signal from the internet instead of very high bitrate data off of a blu-ray player (I really should update my sig, lol)?

I'm with you all the way. I do make use of the instant play constantly for some tv shows and lower budget movies, but for everything else I still prefer bluray's clearer picture and extra disc content (deleted scenes, etc.) I didn't build this huge home theatre system for "meh" HD quality.

What I've been noticing lately is that Netflix is getting rather lax about replacing or updating their stock. For instance I wanted to show the original Tron to some friends recently, but apparently Netflix lost all their copies (they had it before), and they aren't bothering to replace them. They haven't even bothered to get the newer bluray release. Also, there are several Unrated editions of movies out there that are far superior to the theatrical release, and they don't bother stocking them.
 
I got a letter in the mail today saying that my sub was going up to $32 in January. It's time to drop down to the 2 at a time plan me thinks.
 
The 100+ Million Netflix spent on streaming content...Bah...

If I see 1 more "Murder She Wrote", or random British mystery shows, I'm gonna freak out!

Netflix needs to spend $ on some quality hit shows, and keep them there. Don't remove them quarter later to load up Barney and Friends part 33.
 
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