Netflix User Poll: How to Handle The New Pricing Changes?
Netflix users around the country are abuzz about Netflix’s new pricing plans. Previously, all DVD plans included unlimited internet streaming. Late last year the prices were upped slightly to $10 a month for 1 DVD out at a time, $15 for 2 DVDs, and $20 for 3 DVDs. (I’m rounding because I think .99 pricing is annoying.) Coming September 1st, 2011, Netflix has separated the DVD and Streaming options completely. Streaming is $8 a month, and there is no discount if you add it to a DVD plan. 1 DVD at a time is $8, making the total now $16 month – a 60% price hike. 2 DVDs at a time is $12, making the new total $20 a month, a 33% price hike.
Now, that’s one way to look at it. However, I really only used Netflix streaming very lightly. Instead, I can now get my 1 DVD a month for only $8. Or, I can upgrade to 2 DVDs for month for $12. I think that streaming video is the key to Netflix avoiding becoming the next buggy-whip manufacturer, and that making things a la carte was something that had to be done sooner or later. I just think the move came too early. Their streaming quality and selection is simply not good enough for me to pay $8 a month for it.
According to a reader poll last month, 63% of you subscribe to Netflix. So think about it for a minute… what are you going to do?
Some people say that they are going to switch to Redbox or Blockbuster Express, but I’m actually probably going to go with the 2 DVDs for $12 plan, since I don’t like having to remember to return movies at the grocery store. If anything, this will push me to explore other online streaming options for the occasional “I’m bored and there’s nothing to watch” moments. I know that with a paid Amazon Prime membership ($79 annually) you can get free access to Amazon Instant Video as well as that handy 2-day shipping. Not sure how good their selection is, though. Alternatively, I could rent movies a month from iTunes at $1-$4 each, and they’d be new releases.
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I’m a long time NetFlix subscriber (since 2000 I believe.) Until now I was grandfathered into a 4-disc unlimited (plus streaming) plan for under $20 per month. With the changes, my monthly charge would jump by $10. I decided that 4-dvds at time was nice when I was getting a deal – now it is just too many. I reduced to 3-dvds plus streaming and my bill is only going up by $2-3. Annoying, but not enough to turn me off from a great service.
I was disappointed to get that e-mail from Netflix yesterday announcing this move.
I’ll explore my options before acting, but off the top of my head I’m thinking I’ll either:
1. Nix the DVDs that I hardly use anyway and stick with just the streaming to the Roku box
or
2. Since I’m an Amazon Prime member anyway, check that out. If it’s not too much of a downgrade from Netflix streaming, use that instead.
Ack, I’ve never actually rented a movie from iTunes, and the Harry Potter movie I checked was 99 cents so I assumed all of them were. My apologies, they do range from $3 to $4 a rental. That’s too much as well unless I’m really desperate.
I am keeping the streaming part, and sharing the cost of 1 DVD at a time with a neighbor (who is also keeping his own streaming). I use streaming more but would like to keep the DVD option because new releases are rarely available via streaming.
Right now I have Netflix streaming to a blu-ray player (Netflix compatible), WII, 2 PCs, a tablet, and my iPhone, so I can’t drop that service…I would seriously consider Amazon Prime, but how many devices can be active for a single Amazon Prime account? Netflix allows 6 and I need them all…(and if I add more, it will just automatically drop one, and add it back when I want).
This change is a $2 price decrease for me.
I don’t use streaming enough to keep it.
“Loren, if you buy a $99 AppleTV or an even-cheaper Roku, you can watch Netflix streaming on your TV. Also, many modern blu-ray DVD players can also do Netflix streaming.”
Which is an investment I may eventually make, but even that would never make me give up the mailed DVDs. Far too much of what I rent is simply not available for streaming. Right now, that includes Mad Men, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Penn & Teller’s BS, and a handful of newer films.
By contrast, only one time have I ever faced the scenario of something being available for streaming but NOT on disc (“Party Down” Season 2).
So it’s possible that I may add back a streaming plan at some point, but for now, it’s largely superfluous.
We are keeping both DVDs and streaming, but dropping down to fewer DVDs.
I think I am just going to keep my plan – I almost entirely stream (and I watch silly shows while I work), but I can get, for instance, HBO shows on disc that are not easily available on streaming. I consider “cost to get data” something I am willing to spend more on, and I think I easily get 20$ of value out of netflix a month!
Same poll over at Hacking NetFlix:
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/…..to-do.html
I thought the streaming service was decent. The quality was good but the selection was poor. If I wanted to stream a TV series I was generally able to watch season 1 (maybe 2) via streaming but would then have to switch to DVDs which I found annoying.
I probably watch too much TV as it is and a 60% price increase (while only $6 per month) is silly. There are many redboxes around, I will pay $1 for an occasional movie.
I canceled my membership yesterday.
Seems as though iTunes has 99 cent rentals for SELECT movies. More of a sales type thing. Regularly, they are 2.99 and 3.99 for HD quality.
Carlo
VMwareInfo.com
Sorry to be thick, but itunes has $1 new release rentals?
Loren, if you buy a $99 AppleTV or an even-cheaper Roku, you can watch Netflix streaming on your TV. Also, many modern blu-ray DVD players can also do Netflix streaming.
Streaming may be the future, but it’s still not in my present. I like the convenience of streaming, the long-term savings on purchasing DVDs, and after I change my internet provider I doubt speed should be a problem…
…but I’m still going for the 1-DVD-at-a-time plan. Because for me, it all comes down to presentation. DVDs I can watch on my 50-inch television with a quality sound system, from my recliner. Streaming video I get to watch on my computer screen, through my computer speakers, from either my computer chair or an inconvenient spot across the room.
If I currently had a way to stream video to my television, then the equation would be different. But for now, watching DVDs is a pleasure, and watching streaming is annoying. (And that’s ignoring the interminable buffering periods to watch anything with my current internet speed. Even watching a half-hour show requires two 10-minute buffering waits.)
I don’t use the streaming much, and I dislike the fact that streaming doesn’t have any extras or captioning. The selection is getting better but doesn’t match that of their DVDs. I plan to only pay for the physical DVD plan beginning in September.
I’m seeing that they’re not always replacing or buying DVDs and I figure eventually they’ll quit buying discs completely. At that point I’d switch to streaming if they have more to watch.
We’ve been streaming only since it was first offered. Physical DVDs were a pain and ended up costing us too much money ie. they’d sit in our home for weeks before we’d watch or return.
People who are up in arms about the DVD price hike need to realize they are living in the last decade if not the last century. DVD is dead.
Had no idea itunes rentals were $1. I might have to do that, we have the dvd service but the last few months we have only watched 2 dvds…
Actually, we have streaming only and are VERY pleased with it. We have amazing internet service thought (fiber optic). No problem with quality – and my dh would generally settle for no less than Blu Ray. (It’s obviously not Blu Ray quality, but if he is happy – it can’t be much worse).
That said, we also have Blockbuster for a variety of reasons. We are grandfathered on some old cheap plan with unlimited in-store exchanges, get free game rentals, and prefer Blu Rays and access to new releases. I have personally been nagging my spouse to drop BB for a while. The first thing he told me yesterday was “Glad I didn’t drop BB” since the prices are now comparable, BUT BB is a far better disc service. But, NF has won our hearts with their streaming. If it were just me, that would be enough, but not quite enough for the videophile.
Perhaps I’m being silly, but an abrupt 60% price increase in the service I was getting (1DVD and streaming) really pisses me off. I’m going to cancel my service, partly just on principle. I already have amazon prime, so I’m going to give that plus redbox/bb-ex plus itunes (I have an apple tv) a try for a while. I may come crawling back to netflix, and if their streaming selection improves markedly, I’ll definitely be back, but for now, I’m out.
I’m not sure that your iTunes pricing is totally right. Just glancing at the top 20 iTunes rentals (http://www.popvortex.com/movie…..entals.php), only one of the 20 is available at $0.99, most are $2.99 or $3.99. The downside of that is that, while you don’t have to remember to return the movie, once you start watching, you have a limited amount of time in which to finish watching it.
I’m sticking to Redbox, personally.
We began and still have Netflix to get 2 movies to watch on DVD everyweekend. Streaming began as a curiousity for us but since we bought a Roku player we’ve utilized it more and more. Currently I watch Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the original Twilight Zone episodes–Netflix has the entire series of each. I’m happy with the quality of the wireless streaming. However, I’m not ready to give up the DVDs yet because the selection of streaming material isn’t good enough yet. New movies are only available on DVD for the most part.
The best case I can see is this rate hike enables Netflix to negotiate better terms with the studio and expand their streaming library to totally supplant DVDs, in which case I’m happy to subscribe only to streaming. We’ll keep both for the time being. At $15 a month this was a really good bargain for us. At $20 less-so, but still the price hasn’t exceeded my willingness to pay for what we get. I’d probably even be willing to pay as much as $25 a month, but at $30 I’d probably opt out.
I’m an avid movie watcher so the issue with the streaming service isn’t the quality in terms of the picture quality but the quality of movies available. Until Netflix updates their library to offer more new releases rather than a bunch of movies I’ve already seen I’ll just stick to my unlimited DVD option and for that 1x a month when I’m bored and not interested in the movies I have “out” I’ll spend the couple of $ and download from iTunes or Pay-Per-View. I still come out ahead. I have to think Netflix is going to lose money in this scenario… agree they made this move WAY too early.
I disagree about the streaming service and so far from the votes, you see that out of 16 people 70% only want the streaming service.
Streaming service is the future and I disagree about the quality. I think the High defintion is really pretty good, yet it’s not going to produce 1080p like you would from a bluray player, but 720p is hardly bad quality. You are probably streaming it with something like the wii or something that isn’t producing the quality you want.
The benefit of streaming is also you can put it on 5 different devices. I can watch netflix on my android phone, while my I’m traveling and even connect it to the television in my hotel while my wife watches it streaming at the sametime at home.
I think eventually they are going to stop mailing DVDs, because they know the future is streaming instant content. The only negative thing about netflix streaming is that not eveything you want to watch can be streamed and a lot of times the movies that come out on netflix are a little late, but for the price and everything else you get, there’s nothing else out better.
hulu plus and youtube you can purchase videos as well.
The problem with the poll is that it doesn’t have the option that I’d most likely use if I were living alone: switch between dvd and streaming as my need arises. I almost always stream, but there are occasions when I want to have the physical media because the netflix physical media library is MUCH larger than what is available via streaming. So I could see one month doing a 2-3 out at a time, watch a whole tv series only available on DVD, and then the next month go back to streaming.
Don’t forget Hulu.com for streaming too. Owned by NBC/FOX/Disney/ABC they are sure to keep up content.