Netflix Hikes Prices, Adds DVD-Only Plan

Well, I was gonna get a Blu Ray player soon and rent em but for that price, i'd rather just buy the movies I wanna watch.

My mom might drop her service too. Enjoy the pocket book hit Netflix, then maybe you'll catch a clue, but I doubt it. Oh how the mighty have fallen....
 
Volkum said:
I'm surprised to see so many people canceling the DVD/bluray rental and keeping the streaming. You guys are really that satisfied with the streaming selection? I still find it quite lacking.
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I can almost always find something to watch, but I mostly watch their TV show series. I've always been bad at watching any tv series that was on at a regular time, with a couple exceptions. I've been able to watch a lot of the series I have missed via streaming. :) However, their movie selection is VERY lacking.
 
I'll switch over to streaming only when this price goes into effect.
 
Soggy said:
I'll switch over to streaming only when this price goes into effect.
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This

I find it funny everyone is immediately dropping to streaming, even though these prices wont go into effect for a month and a half.
 
I understand why they're having to do it; the studios are trying to screw them now that streaming has become big business instead of "incidental side income" and a lot of the contracts they've got for movies from those studios run out in the next year or two and are likely going to be renegotiated at substantially higher prices. They've already instituted delays between when DVDs come out and when Netflix gets to start renting them.

Having said that, I really don't have another option - I live in a rural area where my DSL access is limited to 768kbps (in practice, I usually don't see speeds higher than about 70KB/second on average); getting DVDs in the mail beats the ridiculous late fees I used to have to pay at BlockBuster/Hollywood video/etc. The streaming was nice, but not as a primary viewing mechanism - 70KB/second means it's a pretty blurry stuttery pixelated experience at best. On the flip side, when I first got my Netflix subscription years ago, I think it was $17.95/month, and now it's going to be $23.95/month. Yeah, it sucks - but compare that to how much my health insurance and Dish network subscriptions (and hell - gasoline, while we're at it), percentage-wise I'd rather bitch about those things first.

Ah, to live where I could get decent broadband access and be able to ditch Dish and downsize my Netflix to streaming only, and add a Hulu+ account for all my TV and movie watching needs...
 
Freezebyte said:
Well, I was gonna get a Blu Ray player soon and rent em but for that price, i'd rather just buy the movies I wanna watch.

My mom might drop her service too. Enjoy the pocket book hit Netflix, then maybe you'll catch a clue, but I doubt it. Oh how the mighty have fallen....
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Whats going to hit their pocketbook are the deals they will ahve to strike with content providers net year.

Some people need to get a grip on reality. Who really thought they would be able to stream every movie made for the rest of their lives for $10 a month? I would gladly pay more if the selection improves a lot.
 
This is a pretty huge change. For those rushing out to cancel, it only applies to existing accounts after September 1st. Still, I'm not sure we'll continue. Going from $12/month for 1 BD+streaming to $18/month for the same service is a ridiculous 50% increase.
 
Off to the public library to borrow True Blood season 3, Battlestar Galactica season 4.5, Blade Runner: Final Cut, and Red Dwarf season 1-8...for free. Granted I'll have to walk three whole blocks to go pick them up, so I guess in addition to the free movies I'll be receiving some free and much needed exercise. :D
 
To those bitching about the increase, and canceling or threatening to cancel, are you still going to purchase movies made by the studios that are necessitating this price hike by gouging Netflix on the licensing?
 
I'll be talking it over with my wife when I get home today. The monthly price will now double from when I subscribed last year. I don't like the precedent this sets, so I will most likely be changing my plan or cancelling outright for a competitor. Speak with your pocketbook, as that's the only way that they'll listen.

I see pirating going back up. When products are priced too high, the masses will find a cheaper alternative rather than go without. Basic economics.
 
That said, if steaming selection improves, I would reconsider. Currently though, it sucks. Not too mention it seems to be wrong for some show. Decided to watch the Tudors, and in addition to spoiling the entire season in the first few minutes of the very first episode via a "previously seen" section, the episodes are often labeled incorrectly.
 
I think I may cancel entirely and just rent stuff from Amazon streaming from time to time. I didn't watch a lot on Netflix anyway. Their content is split so much between streaming and disc that neither service alone is worth it to me.

If this price hike is due to the studios squeezing them, I'm going to go take a look at shorting their stock. They could lose a pile of customers over such a steep increase.
 
Chihlidog said:
To those bitching about the increase, and canceling or threatening to cancel, are you still going to purchase movies made by the studios that are necessitating this price hike by gouging Netflix on the licensing?
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Yes they will continue to contribute to the content providers that are screwing everyone over. Price hikes ARE going to happen to ALL streaming and rental services this year or next.
 
bucket said:
Off to the public library to borrow True Blood season 3, Battlestar Galactica season 4.5, Blade Runner: Final Cut, and Red Dwarf season 1-8...for free. Granted I'll have to walk three whole blocks to go pick them up, so I guess in addition to the free movies I'll be receiving some free and much needed exercise. :D
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Tax≠free
 
Holy crap, this is the second time in a few months they have raise rates. This is pure bs
 
$16 a month is a lot for basically unlimited movies. Right?

Stupid that they change it now though, it woulda made more sense to just do this from the beginning.
 
so how many concurrent devices can we stream now? i didn't see any mention of that on the website. 1 per 7.99 agreement?
 
Forgot to add, it obviously beats the "Premium Cable" packages.(I have them, HBO, MAX, STARZ, and those other 2, forget the names). And its really hard to find a good movie most of the time, only good on recently has been series(Spartacus and Game of Thrones was good). So I find Netflix really worth it, even at $16 a month for basically everything.
 
JiveMofo said:
so how many concurrent devices can we stream now? i didn't see any mention of that on the website. 1 per 7.99 agreement?
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Safe bet that wont change. With the basic package, it's one device at a time. I see no reason theyd increase that.

Once again, I truly hope that subscribers take up their beef with the real bad guys here. It isnt netflix.
 
Chihlidog said:
To those bitching about the increase, and canceling or threatening to cancel, are you still going to purchase movies made by the studios that are necessitating this price hike by gouging Netflix on the licensing?
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Yep, why wouldn't I? I can't live every moment of my life idealistically, fighting every battle with my moral outrage. I'll buy the movies I actually want to own and watch all the shows I like free of charge online just like I do now. Would you have people pirate the material instead?
 
i'm not sure if we will keep this or not

this is a pretty steep price increase .... if they can get the streaming selection improved (alot) i might be inclined to keep that.


but i will have to take a closer look @ hulu+ i guess and other options in general because this is a pretty obnoxious price increase.
 
I'd be fine with that, but only if you can stream everything. Otherwise you might as well use a redbox.
 
I can't remember the last time I actually watched a dvd. I've been full digital for years now. I would be willing to pay more for streaming if I had to, I really enjoy it.
 
Chihlidog said:
Safe bet that wont change. With the basic package, it's one device at a time. I see no reason theyd increase that.

Once again, I truly hope that subscribers take up their beef with the real bad guys here. It isnt netflix.
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You really think they would listen to us?
 
I wonder if they did an assessment of how many people are going to drop the service because of this and whether or not the lost revenue is greater than the people who wont pay attention to it to notice.

fucking idiots. Cancelled.

It would be different if they were actually going to add more good movies to their list and update their streaming service. I really got tired of starting to watch everything in SD because they don't want to pay for HD, oh and the fact that there isn't a lot of new content on.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Yep, why wouldn't I? I can't live every moment of my life idealistically, fighting every battle with my moral outrage. I'll buy the movies I actually want to own and watch all the shows I like free of charge online just like I do now. Would you have people pirate the material instead?
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Id rather see it pirated than the studio execs benefitting from this BS. They squeeze netflix, netflix passes on the cost, we cancel netflix who loses our sub money, but we continue to purchase product from the studios who caused all of this in the first place. They win. That ticks me off a bit. I dont have a problem with pirating anymore based on their actions.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Yep, why wouldn't I? I can't live every moment of my life idealistically, fighting every battle with my moral outrage. I'll buy the movies I actually want to own and watch all the shows I like free of charge online just like I do now. Would you have people pirate the material instead?
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Exactly. I don't buy a movie on DVD or bluray for more than $15, though I do splurge and spend a whole $20 occasionally. I really don't buy that many movies, so I doubt I am giving significant revenue to the studios anyways.
 
Yup, second time they bumped up the rates. I'm going to 3 disks rather than 4. Can't do 30 a month for that sort of service.
 
I'll be dropping the DVD rental portion as well.
I wonder how much money they will lose when this goes into effect.
 
Well there goes my Netflix sub. I stuck with it the last time they raised the price because it was only like $1, and my fiance uses the dvd rentals. I can't justify a 60% increase though. Oh well, so long Netflix.
 
Marcdaddy said:
Just cancelled my 2 rental and streaming policy and changed it to just streaming.
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Which is probably what they want. You are only saving $1-2, and if you rented just a couple of movies a month postage both ways and processing materials at the distribution centers probably added up to that much.

They'll be bringing in about the same amount as before for those that drop DVD and stick to streaming, yet with lower costs. Then, for those people that just HAVE to have DVD rental still they just made 60% more off them than they were before.
 
Ummm I guess all you guys missed the story about how Sony just cancelled a contract with Netflix and many other studios are preparing to do so, and renewing these contracts will cost Netflix many, many times more money than previous contracts to stream their movies. The price hikes are no surprise.
 
Chihlidog said:
Id rather see it pirated than the studio execs benefitting from this BS. They squeeze netflix, netflix passes on the cost, we cancel netflix who loses our sub money, but we continue to purchase product from the studios who caused all of this in the first place. They win. That ticks me off a bit. I dont have a problem with pirating anymore based on their actions.
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Netflix should have done a better job negotiating on behalf of their userbase. Yes, the MPAA and studios are ridiculous and greedy, but it isn't going to drive me to piracy. I buy movies when they are <$9 unless it is a must have.
 
The price itself isn't too bad, but when you want to have multiple streams going at the same time, you have to bump up the number of dvd's out at a time.

At least at the new price of $24 a month it's still way cheaper then tv, but it would be great to see them allow you to just add to the max number of concurrent streams without having the dvd option.
 
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