If someone had told me a few months ago that I would do this, I would have said they were nuts, but I’ve watched all the obscure stuff that I signed up for it to watch in the first place, and more and more of this is showing up on You Tube anyway. I can get all the DVDs I want for free at the library as well.
I had cancelled the DVD option a few weeks ago, and decided to cancel streaming when I realized I wasn’t using it either.
However, in the meantime, I got to see some terrific things I may never have had the chance to see otherwise (like, for instance, most of John Waters’ movies! ).
ETA: I was using Netflix less and less after I discovered that I could watch You Tube through my TV, via Tivo.
I suggest watching Monster like that, because no one (netflix, hulu, crunchyroll, amazon) has that anime and you have to scrounge though sites like Vimeo for it. (does your Tivo’s youtube option let you refine your searches for upload date and run length and whatnot like the site itself allows? On my roku I can’t figure out how to do that)
I’m a big fan of Netflix DVDs - not all that stuff is available in any of our libraries, and a lot is too long for YouTube. However I just cancelled streaming, because I looked through almost everything there and found almost nothing to watch.
I do have Acorn streaming, which let us watch the latest season of Murdoch before it got to Netflix - and there is tons of good stuff on it.
Amazon/Acorn was the only service we found which carries the later Murdoch seasons (yeah, we discovered it on Netflix and binge watched everything, LOL. Love thatshow!)
We’ve been losing patience with Netflix too. We find more stuff on Amazon for some weird reason.
I cancelled the streaming service just now because I really wasn’t using it and they raised the price. I’m keeping the DVD-by-mail service for now but am considering downgrading to the no-Bluray option.
This morning, I canceled my DVD Netflix after many years. I don’t have the streaming. I decided to cancel when I realized that I had the same 2 DVDs for several months without watching them.
I was glad to have had Netflix in order to watch all of The Wire, all of Breaking Bad, and all of Better Off Ted. I tried to get into Mad Men, but quit after one episode. I enjoyed the first whole season of Boardwalk Empire, but began to dislike the show sometime during the second season. I am one of those rare people who has never ever seen Game of Thrones.
Now that I am older (60-plus), I can barely stay awake long enough to watch shows that I really like on PBS, like Nature, Nova, Frontline, Masterpiece Mystery, Ken Burns docs, etc. I own many DVDs of movies and TV shows that I haven’t had time to watch yet. I just mailed back my two Netflix DVDs unwatched.
Maybe one day I will sign up for the Netflix streaming, but not in the foreseeable future. I find myself listening to podcasts like Strangers, Radiolab, This American Life, more often than I used to.
I have to say I have the opposite experience lately. I’ve had Netflix for about 9 years also and I have gone through many years where I thought it wasn’t worth it but here is what I have binged lately besides the usual (House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, etc)
The Fall (please let there be a new season!)
Happy Valley (ditto though doubtful)
Peaky Blinders
Making of a Murderer
Wallander
Bloodline
The Last Kingdom
Top of the Lake
Chef’s Table
There are still plenty of series I haven’t tried yet and am very happy lately with the new series/seasons frequency. Contrast with Hulu- where The Path and Deadbeat are the only watchable series I’ve liked so far and Amazon which does have Mozart in The Jungle and Transparency plus a few more Masterpiece Theater type things than the others- Netflix just has the most variety and best original series.
Granted, I don’t have any cable now so I really appreciate that I can always find something to watch on Netflix while Hulu & Amazon take a little more digging.
I’m another who’s dropped Netflix entirely. There was nothing in their catalog that I wanted to see any more, and there are five Redboxes within walking distance for when Hollywood actually manages to make something I want to see.
I cancelled my Netflix years ago. I’ve heard and read good things about the original series that Netflix produces now, but my interest in passive entertainment activities wanes more daily.
to me netflix hasn’t been any better or worse than blockbuster was other than the tv shows you get 3 or 4 big releases and the rest straight to video dreck although Netflix dosent carry all the soft core "thrillers"from corman types blockbuster did but they do have more “mockbusters”
I think if they ever stopped the tv shows theyed be in trouble tho
The only series I’ve binge-watched have been “Making a Murderer” and “Downton Abbey” after I discovered it about halfway in (and then never watched the conclusion!). I’m just not into that.
I’m not sure what the time limit is on You Tube; for a while, it was 10 minutes but I’ve seen things on there that were as long as 7 hours. For example, I stumbled onto this several days ago, and it was very interesting. It came out in 2007.
I cancelled on July 8th. I’ll re-subscribe for a month at a time when new seasons of series we like come out but after watching Orange Is The New Black I realized we just don’t watch it otherwise.
Interestingly enough, for me Netflix is must-see watching. I am more interested in Netflix’s original programming than I am for HBO’s (although, I think “Veep” is the best thing on either… but “Orange is the New Black” and “BoJack Horseman” aren’t very far behind).
Sometimes a free 1 month pass, sometimes a 3 month thing. Just to catch up on some of their shows and stuff.
I very quickly run out of movies they carry that I’d want to see. It’s an amazingly shallow library of the kinds of stuff I like (French New Wave, for example). So I end up watching crappy 60s “exploitation” films for the lolz.
I have virtually no interest in the latest Hollywood super-duper blockbuster mega-budget films.
It appears the OP is far from alone in canceling. The latest quarterly reports: Netflix projected adding 2.5M new customers. Ended up with a net of 1.54M more. Analysts blame the price hikes for losing a lot of previously grandfathered members. Having a big churn of customers isn’t good for business.
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