Yes, you are right the changes don’t go into effect for over a month. But the fact that significant changes (for me at least) are going to happen caught me off guard. Some rumblings that these necessary changes are coming would have been nice. I know some people might not like vague press releases that say “a new pricing plan is being put into place over the next few days,” but I would have been less surprised.
I was wondering the same. I’ll keep my current deal (4 discs at a time, grandfathered at the 3 disc at a time price because I’ve been a customer since the 20th century) until the price goes up, then I will reduce to 2 discs (as my long time status no longer means anything) plus streaming. I don’t pay for blu-ray (though we debate it) because we watch more episodic titles than movies.
I have a tendency to forgot to change my billing when these sorts of things come up. I get DVDs rarely enough that it’s not likely to crimp my style to lose them for the next seven weeks.
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Terrible?
I guess it depends on taste. We use the streaming WAY more than we do the DVDs - I find tons of stuff on streaming that is very entertaining.
About the only thing it’s terrible at are the latest & greatest movies. So that’s why I either get them on DVD from Netflix, or download them from Amazon. But a good 75% of what we watch nowadays is Netflix streaming. I don’t find the selection terrible in the least.
Here’s what I don’t get: in several of the media stories about this, Redbox has been suggested as a likely alternative for people who decide to cancel their Netflix account over the new pricing. I don’t understand how one could stand in for the other. If I wanted to rent from Redbox, I’d have to go out to the box, pick up my movie, and then return it to the box. And they charge $1 a day. And they really only have new/popular releases. That is pretty much the exact opposite of what I like and appreciate about Netflix. Granted, like I said, I’m all in favor of the new pricing plan, so I’m not someone they’re talking about, but who would consider that a better choice?
Holy SHIT I just saw this email because it goes to like, a tertiary gmail account.
Wow. I mean, we only watch maybe one physical disc per month but I always enjoyed the discs by mail as supplemental. I canNOT believe they are upping prices literally by 60%. That’s messed up, big time.
But that’s what happens with a monopoly!
Redbox’s selection is total garbage. I think most people will simply choose physical disc or streaming.
I had considered dropping it for Redbox, but then I realized that most of what I rent on Netflix is older movies anways which Redbox wouldn’t work for. Having said that, I’ll probably keep my subscription in tact, at least for a while.
I think you missed the posts in this thread and the external links pointing out the reasons for the increase. It has nothing to do with “monopoly” pricing (and Netflix is not a monopoly). The costs for their content are skyrocketing.
Heh…watching all this just makes me smugly sit back and be glad that I didn’t fall for that Netflix garbage…did the free trial for a month, didn’t like it. Streaming only plus ISPs now capping bandwidth plus Netflix price increase equals EXPENSIVE.
Give me the physical medium.
ISP’s capping bandwidth won’t really affect Netflix users unless you are streaming movies 24/7 7 days a week every month. And even then I don’t think you’d hit the cap. Comcast’s cap is at 250GB a month. That’s a lot.
I am all for the physical medium, which is why I use Netflix. With this new pricing plan, I’ll be paying $15.99 to be able to get 3 discs at a time. I tend to watch 5 - 7 discs per week (both tv shows and movies - I don’t have cable or even regular tv). Even at 5 per week, that’s less than a buck a movie that comes straight to my house and can be returned with less effort than brushing my teeth. That’s just not my definition of garbage.
We’ve been a one dvd + streaming household for quite a while and in the last six months we’ve mostly streamed and left the dvds to collect dust for weeks at a time. I was toying with the idea of dropping the dvds to go streaming-only and this is as good a reason as any.
And really, is the sticker price of $16/month so shocking? Maybe I’m just a rich fat cat but I spend more than that on coffee every week. I know it’s an increase of 60%(!) as the OP says, but 160% of “not much” isn’t “a lot.”
Off topic, that’s good news. I was wondering about that vis-a-vis Steam’s summer game sale and all the downloading I’ve been up to.
Back on topic, Redbox is an alternative for some because most people don’t watch indie films or want to see an anime from 1996; they just want to see Thor or Bad Teacher when it comes out on DVD. Nothing wrong with the former but I doubt it drives as much traffic as the latter. The part where you haul your ass to the store sucks but, with them outside a bunch of gas stations and drug stores these days, some people may find it not as bad as the old days of hitting Blockbuster/Hollywood.
I’m blessed to have a Family Video a block away from me which has very reasonable prices and a staff slavishly happy to see you enter the door, so that’s a nice option for me.
Heh. I still will get my physical disks, in the mail, for LESS than what I am paying now, since I plan to drop the streaming. It may be garbage for you, but it certainly hasn’t lost its value for me.
I could continue to pay for the streaming, but honestly it’s not worth that much to me.
my current dvd/blu-ray plus streaming plan is actually going to cost $1 less per month on the new plan.
Nonetheless, there’s still a huge amount of stuff available on DVD and not for streaming (and only a very small percentage of titles available the other way around).
The reason this bugs me so much is that I never signed up for streaming in the first place. It’s just a benefit that Netflix threw in after I had already subscribed. Carving it off now as a separate service feels like a bit of an imposition, but Bob Ducca’s link makes sense about the likely reason that it was done this way.
All I can say is thank God for public libraries. I can watch a flick for free, and if I like it, I’ll just buy it, usually for used-but-cheap at a local indie place…
Present company excepted of course 
I was thinking more about Twitter when I wrote that.
I’ll keep both services. Don’t care for the price increase, but the fact is their business model couldn’t support such a good deal, especially after Comcast, etc, want to put the screws to them for bandwidth charges.
And like the CEO once said (paraphrasing), the company is called NETflix, not MAILflix.