Anybody else think Netflix is slipping in general? My example; The Fugitive, Season 4, Part 2 set has been out since the middle of February 2011 but is still not available from Netflix.
I get that their cost for content is increasing - anyone who has been paying attention, like others have said, knew this day would be coming. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are still a monopoly and can price things as such.
Amazon Video? Please. Itunes- where you pay for EACH thing you watch? How could anyone ever go back to that model? My feedflix tells me I pay 15 cents per DVD (they count DVD as physical discs it would be on if it weren’t streaming).
Athena is right though - and you don’t have to be middle aged to remember that media was freakin’ expensive and inconvenient pre-Netflix. Hell, I’m in my early 20’s and the bill for 3 movies - one my little brothers wanted to watch, one full family flick and one for my parents was $10 or 12 bucks a week, every week! Plus late fees! Easily 50-65 bucks a month for a full family and at least $20-30 for a couple. How anyone could possibly say that “things have gotten worse” lack a sense of history.
Not as true anymore- the appletv pulls down somewhere over 1GB/hr because of the higher resolution streaming, its about 4-8x the rate my wii pulls. I’ve crossed 200GB a couple times this year*, the vast majority of which is streaming.
*as measured by me, since comcast no longer lets you know until you cross it and they cancel you.
Yeah, but we used to watch movies at the local theater for 25 cents! Double feature! With a cartoon! And a newsreel! And a short! And stay for the second showing without paying! And…no, wait, that was my grandfather.
ETA: I had a nice rant here, but it had nothing to do with the topic. If you happened to have read it in the past 2 minutes, please don’t respond… I don’t want to derail this thread.
I think what is annoying people about this price increase is that it’s coming at a time when we are noticing less value from the service. The Golden Age of being a Netflix customer seems to be behind us.
Here are some of the ways in which the service has become devalued over time due to Netflix’s deals with the studios:
Discs in the mail: When I first joined, you could get any new release shipped on the same street-date it hit stores. Now it seems like the majority of the big new releases are held from Netflix for a month after release.
Streaming: I for one was thrilled when Starz began streaming their original programming episodes through Netflix on the same day or day after that they aired the channel. That ended with the first season Camelot where now their shows are held for 90 days before streaming.
However, the biggest problem is that the streaming catalog is being significantly diminished. If you check on Instantwatcher.com right now there are 3 full pages of upcoming content to be added and 11 full pages of content that is expiring soon to be removed right around the time when your 60% increase takes effect.
When service goes down at the same time that prices go up consumers get agitated.
Every one of your 3 issues can be laid at the feet of the studios, not Netflix. From what I have read, the studios have insisted on all of those restrictions.
Netflix MIGHT be able to negotiate around the studio restrictions, but doubtless at greater expense - wait, they might be planning that…
Here is another good analysis of the situation. Worth a read.
I guess I’ll be going back to all instant. I enjoyed it but not enough to pay almost double.
Shoot, our libraries here charge 2.50 for three days. Not too high but if the disk is no good you will not get a refund or a replacement. You’re just SOL. And given the high number of scratchy disks it’s just not worth the trouble.
They may not call ( I have no idea ), but I just checked my download status for this month ( and the last three ) on their website without an issue.
My understanding was that a fair amount of stuff expires and then gets insta-renewed, perhaps as new contracts follow old ones. I do agree that competition looks to be an increasing problem in the area of streaming content, which is another reason I might well stick with the full package as a hedge. But apparently it is not quite as bad as those expiration pages make it look.
I still have over 300 DVD’s in my queue that aren’t available to stream, so of course I want both. What gets my goat is that my 3 disc+streaming plan was just raised in January by $3, and now they want to raise another $4.
So I’m reducing to 2 discs+streaming to keep a similar price. I’m not happy about it.
I got an email about this the other day. Turns out, they’re raising my subscription by an unconscionable $0.98 a month.
Bastards!
Has anyone else not been notified by email? Come to think of it, I haven’t even been getting my email notices of discs received and sent lately…
I mean, how could it POSSIBLY have lasted!? Like I said, in Feedflix, we’re (the two of us, not even a full family) are paying 15 cents a DVD. CENTS! Like the change you get from buying a coffee! Less than you put in a frickin’ gumball machine! Also, some 25% of FeedFlix users are MORE efficient than we are.
I actually joined Netflix on a free trial for 2 week and kept it for a month afterwards and then quit. The conundrum I faced was that I never wanted to watch the disc I got on Wednesday and requested Monday on Friday night. I suspect many felt this way in the days pre-Instant - it was difficult to gravitate from the video store model where you got exactly what you wanted that day (albeit inconveniently).
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I think the best response I have to the first graph is just “it’s still the best deal in town”. Nothing else can match it or come ANYWHERE close to it. Many people, in real life and on this board have cut the cable cord, happily with $50-75 extra a month in their pockets. Of course consumers will bellyache at the price increases but I suspect few will leave Netflix, if for no other reason than Amazon Prime and Redbox suck terribly and Itunes is essentially pay-per-view.
ETA: I utilize a very large public library system that routinely has scratched discs and multi month wait times for the latest stuff. The library is a non-starter for anything less than a year old.
I was already planning to drop the 1 disc I’m getting, but after the price hike I decided to just cancel entirely. I don’t really use it that much and if I’m effectively locked out of getting DVDs at a rate reasonable to me occasionally, then meh.
Part of the reason, too, is that Netflix has gotten stingy with me. I like to listen to some content (like stand-up comedy) but I’ve noticed in the last few months that if the content ever needs to buffer, it won’t do it if the tab with the player is in the background. This means I have to stop gaming, or whatever, to bring up the video to the dominant window and wait – or walk back into the room, or whatever. I’ve also noticed significantly more buffering than before. It’s just not a good value for me anymore. I’d sign up in the future if my usage was likely to change significantly.
I think I’m going with the DVD option, because judging by my queue, their streaming selection sucks for me. I’ll just have to make myself sit down and watch at least one movie a week. Their price change made me reassess what I’m willing to pay for but barely use, so either I’m going to use it or cancel outright. $10/month I could ignore, $16/month I noticed. I guess that’s my price point for this not-really-a-service-for-me.
Oh, and sorry if anyone was waiting on Rififi - guess I’ll watch that this weekend finally. Seems it’s been at my place for almost a year. I can’t blame streaming on this as I’ve streamed one Netflix film ever; I just haven’t been in a film-watching mood.
No they are not.
Netflix provides video entertainment. They compete with a host of other sources. Amazon, Itunes, Hulu Plus, Vudu, et al may be inferior options, but they are options. There are also Redbox and other video rental outlets (is Blockbuster still around?). There is also competition with On-Demand (why do you think cable touts the “28 days before Netflix and Redbox”?) and cable in general. Also, Netflix does not create the content and does not have significant influence (at this time) over the content creators, so there is no control. Lastly, as Netflix showed Blockbuster, and as Amazon and others are trying to show, there are minimal barriers to entry into the market. Netflix needs to rightly be wary of someone coming along with a better mousetrap.
That Netflix provides the widest service with (IMHO) the best delivery (followed by On-Demand cable, again IMHO) does not make them a monopoly by even a loose definition of the word.
I haven’t gotten anything from Netflix about the upcoming price change; if it weren’t for this thread, the one on GB, and an article in yesterday’s paper I wouldn’t know anything about it. I also haven’t gotten an e-mail acknowledgement of the change I requested from streaming and DVD to just DVD, although when I check my current account status it now shows DVD only.
I have been getting notices of DVDs sent and received, however.
Indeed. One of the sites showed all the Whedon shows ending a couple of months ago. I’ve got the DVD’s but find it convenient to just click a few times & watch “Out of Gas” or “Smile Time” or “Lovers’ Walk.” So I was upset. The deadline came & went & all the shows remained.
Some others have gone, but they might return. In the meantime, I’ve just begun my re-watch of Twin Peaks. Most of the Star Trek shows are now available–with *Deep Space 9 *scheduled soon. Later this month: Mad Men!
No shortage of brain-rot for me: Xena, Red Dwarf, Blackadder & all the New Who through Matt Smith’s first season. How many times have I watched those 3 episodes of Sherlock? And I’ve gone back to the Jeremy Brett version, as well. (Hey, I watch plenty of documentaries too!)
Here’s what I mean: up until recently*, Pittsburgh (as many other cities) had only one high speed internet provider. If I were to bitch and moan about Comcast’s shitty service model and sky-high prices, people would say “You can always get Verizon DSL”. Um, no I can’t, not unless I want to waste my youth waiting for stuff to buffer. If it’s not an equal competitor offering an identical or near-identical service, it’s a virtual or an effective monopoly.
The same goes for - what did you say, VuDu? Wtf is that? - all the other half-assed attempts into the video-provider model. The last time most people watched a paid On-Demand movie was 2002.
*We now, blessedly, have FIOS. Prices have come down about 20-25% because there is genuine competition.