Netflix raises prices - a lot

[KingIsaacLinksr]

$7.99 to watch a film is that right? May as just buy the DVD and keep it. Or am i missing something?

No, its $7.99 a month for "unlimited" DvDs (that you can only get 1 at a time or more if you pay more)

King

[X]

$7.99 to watch a film is that right? May as just buy the DVD and keep it. Or am i missing something?

unlimited streaming or unlimited rental of 1dvd at a time each month for 7.99

[Bryancd]

$7.99 to watch a film is that right? May as just buy the DVD and keep it. Or am i missing something?

unlimited streaming or unlimited rental of 1dvd at a time each month for 7.99

Right, so you can get DVD's as fast as you can watch them, mail them back, and get the next. And the delivery is pretty fast.

[turtlesrock]

$7.99 to watch a film is that right? May as just buy the DVD and keep it. Or am i missing something?

unlimited streaming or unlimited rental of 1dvd at a time each month for 7.99

Right, so you can get DVD's as fast as you can watch them, mail them back, and get the next. And the delivery is pretty fast.

how fast?

[Bryancd]

3-4 days for us.

[X]

3-4 days for us.

Both ways? I live right by a distribution point and it's a 4 -6 day turnaround meaning I could get a max of 4-6 movies a month on the one disc plan if I keep them for only one day. That's why I switched to the redbox for my disc rentals. For the same basic cost and view time, I can do 7 movies.

[Bryancd]

3-4 days for us.

Both ways? I live right by a distribution point and it's a 4 -6 day turnaround meaning I could get a max of 4-6 movies a month on the one disc plan if I keep them for only one day. That's why I switched to the redbox for my disc rentals. For the same basic cost and view time, I can do 7 movies.

Yeah, I dropped one in the mail on Monday and received a new one yesterday. We must have a distribution center here in Phoenix. Same with Amazon, they have a massive warehouse here.

[spaltor]

3-4 days for us.

Both ways? I live right by a distribution point and it's a 4 -6 day turnaround meaning I could get a max of 4-6 movies a month on the one disc plan if I keep them for only one day. That's why I switched to the redbox for my disc rentals. For the same basic cost and view time, I can do 7 movies.

That's a long time!  If I drop a DVD in the mail in the Morning (before the 9am pickup), I have a new disc on Tuesday afternoon!

If you're not already, make sure that the barcode on the DVD sleeve is showing through that little window in the back of the return envelope.  Some USPS locations have a scanner from Netflix, and run Netflix mail through that scanner, send a report of to your distribution center, and they send a new disc before they receive the physical one back in the warehouse (as USPS has assured them it's on the way.)   

[Feathers]

It looks like they've realised the true costs of what they're doing and are trying to correct in a single jump. Sounds painful.

(The corporate greed complaints don't wash with me I'm afraid.)

[Redshirt97]

Netflix is still the best deal out there.  I'll dump the one-at-a-time dvd thing, but the streaming is so satisfying. 

The library is still steadily improving. 

I am just really satisfied with Netflix.  That with Hulu+ pretty much takes care of my needs, I dumped DirecTV a few months ago and I don't miss it at all.

  we just got netflix ourselfs for the on-line streaming movies, we canceled he DVD service in favor of the streaming service.  The streaming service is very good and we watched a few movies on line.  we got netflex in place of blockbuster.

[Rico]

Another good article here on this rate hike:

Netflix customers are making perhaps the most damning comparison a day after the rental service announced it was raising its prices: They're saying Netflix is just like the cable guys.
Seething blog posts and comments are piling up across the Web in reaction to a price hike that means customers who want access to DVDs as well as streaming video must now pay $15.98, up from the $9.99 they used to pay for both.
Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings may feel a little shell-shocked by the testy reaction. Hastings and his staff have enjoyed nearly unprecedented customer loyalty and popularity as the Web's most popular movie-rental service. Hastings is the guy who championed consumers against Hollywood and helped take a digital baseball bat to the much-loathed late fees from Blockbuster and traditional video-rental services. He is the guy who mailed movies to users' front door when they used to have to drive to rent. Netflix is regularly at the top of consumer-satisfaction polls. Would we have a term like cord-cutting without Netflix?

And that's why the backlash has been so extreme. Many of the company's 23 million subscribers are outraged over the money issue and they're just plain disappointed in the way Netflix is behaving. Dumping a 60-percent price increase on customers and casually announcing the move in a blog post without warning isn't what Netflix is supposed to be about. There's no doubt that Netflix's brand is suffering. Good will and trust is being drained, and quickly.

I wrote in an earlier piece that Netflix is still the best deal available, but plenty of people don't want to hear that. Fair enough. The increase is too much for some and they will bolt. But for those on the fence, I say start up a petition if one hasn't been circulated already, complain on the company's blog, make yourself heard before giving up on the company.
Hastings just might listen. In 2008, Netflix reversed a decision to eliminate user profiles, the account feature that enabled users to split movie rentals among separate queues for a household, after receiving a torrent of complaints and after an online petition was circulated.
The way for Netflix to unwind this is to offer consumers a break on the $15.98 or let keep two discs out for that price. Forcing subscribers to pay as much to rent DVDs as they do for streaming when many of them use the discs only to supplement the streaming library just doesn't seem fair.
Here's another hint, at minimum, Hastings needs to make a statement and own up to this and explain the need for it to customers. The announcement was mishandled and the company right now appears arrogant. Sure, Netflix has a good track record with consumers, but the company's customers have helped spread the word about the service for years and Netflix needs to continue to treat them as a partner.
Even if Netflix is a better deal than competitors, there's another option: going without streaming video. In this era of belt tightening, it would be easy just to pitch it all.
There's no denying that Netflix is facing skyrocketing costs for films and television shows. The truth is that a price increase was inevitable. Hollywood execs have told me that they are still learning how to price Internet-distributed content and they believe they have undervalued their content in initial dealings with Netflix. In addition, more competitors are entering the market. More competitors means content creators can hope for a bidding war.

Don't believe it? Take a look at Wall Street's mute reaction to the pricing move. The company's share price went up after Netflix announced the increase yesterday and in afternoon trading today the stock was up 2 percent and just under $300 a share. Analysts who cover Netflix have predicted price hikes for a long time because there were few other ways the company could afford to expand its library--which customers are discovering is lacking in some important content areas.
When confronted by the argument that Netflix must raise prices to pay for content, one of my CNET colleagues, Maggie Reardon, may have succinctly sized up what many Netflix users are saying: "Who cares? That's their problem. Paying for content is the excuse that cable companies have used for years to justify price hikes."
The longer Netflix waits to respond to customer outrage, the more likely it is that negative attitude will be set in stone.


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20079257-261/for-netflix-theres-a-way-out-of-pricing-mess/#ixzz1SBoAdthb

[Jobydrone]

I look at it like this: HBO and Showtime both cost approximately the same as Netflix is now charging for their service (if you pay for streaming and one DVD out at a time).  It seems to me that based on options for viewing (portable devices, computer, TV through a streaming device or the traditional DVD player) and vastly larger content library that Netflix has, Netflix is clearly a much better value.  I'm certainly not happy about the price increase, but it also doesn't surprise me in any way.

[QuadShot]

Netflix is still the best deal out there.  I'll dump the one-at-a-time dvd thing, but the streaming is so satisfying. 

The library is still steadily improving. 

I am just really satisfied with Netflix.  That with Hulu+ pretty much takes care of my needs, I dumped DirecTV a few months ago and I don't miss it at all.

  we just got netflix ourselfs for the on-line streaming movies, we canceled he DVD service in favor of the streaming service.  The streaming service is very good and we watched a few movies on line.  we got netflex in place of blockbuster.

Yeah, that's a great idea. I think it's kind of rough, but they make it easier if you only want streaming...I'll keep the service and just have faith they will continue to grow the streaming library...

[QuadShot]

So, not sure if this has been mentioned here yet, but this morning I heard the Starz will no longer be partnering with NetFlix. Which means quite a bit of their library will go away....:(

"Is your Netflix queue in trouble?
By Wilson Rothman

People who are blissfully addicted to their Netflix Instant Queue may not realize where all that not-quite-premium-but-totally-watchable content comes from. A major source of it, in fact, the prime source of the top-shelf material, is Starz. And Starz, which carries Disney and Sony content, said today that it might not be providing any of that content to Netflix after February 28, 2012.

Companies fight all the time, and there may be a deal yet. It's a bunch of millionaires fighting over billions. The question is, how much are you affected? There's actually a very simple way to measure this:

Step 1: Take a look at your Instant Queue. If yours is like mine, it's packed with TV series and favorite movies. Maybe there are movies you watch and then remove, like on the DVD Queue, but in my mind, the Instant Queue is really misnamed, since it's more like your personal streaming library.

I have a ton of things that I will never remove, entire series of "X-Files" and "Star Trek: Next Generation" (also, I will admit, "ST: Voyager"). Of the 42 titles, the majority are TV shows, and of the movies there are lots of cult comedies and thrillers, and few if any "major motion pictures."

Step 2: Now look at your Saved Instant list. Another misnamed queue, this should be called "Stuff we don't currently have rights to." These were movies and shows you added that were available, but are no longer.

In a perfect world, that list should be empty, but mine currently contains 21 titles, from "Young Frankenstein" to "Young Victoria," from "Team America" to "The Breakfast Club." Where'd they go? On-demand movies come and go for a variety of reasons, often as exclusive commitments on network TV or premium cable, but a bunch of Sony-distributed movies were yanked in June in what Netflix called a "temporary removal."

Step 3: Do the math. Today, tomorrow, when the Starz deal does or doesn't go through, you will need to take the total number of titles in the Instant Queue and subtract the number of titles on the Saved Instant pile. If you come up with a negative number, or even come close to breaking even, you may not be getting what you think you're getting from your Netflix on-demand experience.

Step 4: Know your options. If you're feeling cheated, just remember, there's no two-year commitment, and you can cancel anytime you're truly not getting your $8 worth. There are actually a surprising number of Netflix competitors coming out of the woodwork, some you may already be paying for without knowing it. If you're already ticked about Netflix's price hike, it may be an especially good time to check your existing services.

I was a member of Hulu Plus, until I realized that, as a Comcast subscriber, I could just access all of that same content through the Xfinity website and apps. (Note: Comcast is the corporate parent of msnbc.com's joint owner NBC Universal, but I am speaking strictly as a paying subscriber here.)

You may also already have Amazon Prime, for the shipping benefits that the annual-fee program offers. It has many of the TV shows seen on Netflix, and getting more every day. And they have an on-demand section for new releases, something Netflix will probably never get.

Final pro tip: Make sure you finish your 20-episode "Party Down" marathon by February 28, 2012. It's a Starz Original series, and will likely vanish."

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/01/7561166-is-your-netflix-queue-in-trouble?gt1=43001

[Rico]

I dropped the disc portion of my Netflix account a couple weeks back.  I'm only doing streaming now.