Netflix prices going up again, a lot this time

[Seeker47]

The Epix deal that Netflix signed was a fiasco($1 billion over five years), it was only a matter of time before they passed the cost on to us consumers.

As for Amazon Prime: I tried it for one month as a free trial and wasn't impressed, mostly redundant shows that Netflix has and I don't order that much from Amazon to make it worth my money.

Epix ? Are you referring to that startup movie channel (available on Verizon FIOS, I hear, but DirecTV passed on it, and not that widely available elsewhere) which hasn't gained much traction in the market ? I missed the news stories on this, so would welcome a synopsis.

Blockbuster should strike back and offer a low price plan.

The problem with the Blockbuster stores was that they were the video equivalent of the now-several-years-gone Crown Books: really just a "bestsellers" store; plenty of copies of the current Top-50 titles, but a Jack Shit selection for most anything else. I would hope that their online business model was different, but have strong doubts about that.

Orsetto, I take your point, but this economy still sux, and I think the resistance to price increases like this will surprise them.

Since I probably go around 15:1 discs over streaming, I am likely to toss the latter overboard first.

[budwzr]

If they start cutting home bandwidth or make caps, all hell will break loose.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Epix ? Are you referring to that startup movie channel (available on Verizon FIOS, I hear, but DirecTV passed on it, and not that widely available elsewhere) which hasn't gained much traction in the market ? I missed the news stories on this, so would welcome a synopsis.

Netflix gets access to Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate catalog for streaming:
http://allthingsd.com/20100810/its-official-epix-netflix-announce-multi-year-deal-for-...eaming-movies/

[budz]

If they start cutting home bandwidth or make caps, all hell will break loose.

It's already happening with AT&T & Comcast.....eventually all ISP's will follow suit.....just my 2 cents!

[MJA]

I heard Comcast is capped at 250GB

[Des]

Interesting Article in PC World

http://www.pcworld.com/article/235693/in_defense_of_netflix.html

--dES

[jagabo]

I wonder how many advertizing dollars Netflix paid (or threatened to withdraw) to get PC World to publish that article.

[budz]

^^^probably a lot!

[edDV]

Clearly they want to discourage the mail DVD service. This only works if they can move most of the titles to streaming which they haven't. Netflix is set to expand internationally later this year starting with Caribbean and South America. Issues are mailing costs and/or broadband availability. Europe will be next.

I suppose they want current users to subsidize this growth. In the past month, NFLX stock has risen ~10% from $260 ro $286. If I had purchased 2 shares @$26 three years ago, I'd have paid for the service with gains to spare.

[handyguy]

Yes, but it was $301 before this thing & now it's just 285.30....

[lordsmurf]

Interesting Article in PC World

I lost all respect for the author the minute he used the word "dissing".
Dumbass.

He almost had me, too.

[Des]

Interesting Article in PC World

I lost all respect for the author the minute he used the word "dissing".
Dumbass.

He almost had me, too.

I can't believe you diss him over diss.



--dES

[MJA]

every person I talked to so far coworkers , friends, relatives are going to downgrade their membership,or cancel (my boss already did)

[souper]

This is nothing new, start a new low price to steal customers away from other competitors, once they got enough people. They jack up the prices on them. They are well aware they are going to lose customers.

[MJA]

competitors ?

[edDV]

Coinstar CSTR (RedBox) up 1.24% today but futures action is building.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/279547-netflix-shifting-consumers-from-red-envelopes-t...nstar-s-redbox
http://seekingalpha.com/article/279430-how-dish-networks-and-coinstar-will-benefit-fro...netflix-s-move
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/07/15/a-very-special-roundtable-netflix-pri...-increase.aspx

Doesn't work for me. Can't find anything worth renting in the RedBox. I go for the more obscure selections.

Long term, I'd expect Amazon to stand up

[robjv1]

If they had even 75% of their content available for streaming, I'd say "smart move" by them, because USPS rate hikes are always just around the corner, and plus they have to hire people to work in their warehouses. With all that said though, the streaming is still not ready for prime time. Even if I watched nothing but all the latest Hollywood blockbusters and Pixar movies, a lot of that content is not available online. If they are relying on the bulk of their customers not to care that there are major holes in their streaming services, I think they'll find some big losses to their subscriber base.

While this is being presented as a way to push people away from getting DVDs in the mail, I think it has a lot more with what edDV mentioned -- Netflix is trying to raise money to pay for the expansion outside the country into potentially more lucrative markets than the US is right now. I would guess the majority of their customers would prefer streamed content over physical discs anyways, so it seems awfully convenient that they'd raise the price for physical discs when so little of their content is available online.

[Des]

Another good article:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-Netflix-Raised-Its-nytimes-3842223211.html?x=0

--dES

[Seeker47]

My plan (Unlimited Streaming + 3-DVDs-out-at-a-time) is just now about to turn over, later on this month. They never sent me any email notification about the price increases, so I had to look this up under 'My Account.' It looks like the monthly rate will go up -- in my case -- by about 4 bucks, from $24. to $28. (This includes the extra cost Blu-Ray option.) If that's the full extent of it, I'm kinda thinking BFD, and what was all the hysteria and indignation about ? I thought this was gonna get bifurcated into TWO plans running upwards of $25./ ea. per month, but I'm not seeing any signs of that. Or am I missing something here ?

Are some of their older plans being grandfathered, and thereby escaping the worst of this ? (I've been a member for several years, at least.)

[budz]

There is no grandfathering of any sort as far as I know.....I dropped my live streaming since IMHO their selection was crappy....

[robjv1]

Some plans are being impacted more than others in terms of the % of the price increase.

For example, you could previously get two DVD's out at one time for $14.99 + unlimited streaming for no extra. Now the cost of that plan is increasing to $19.98 (that's without BR access). So there is a $5 increase for no added value whatsoever. Some plans are increasing $6.00. I believe the cheaper the plan is, the more it is going up, but I can't remember exactly how they break it up.

[the_man_one]

mine went down, to nothing, i canceled

[Nitemare]

I switched to streaming only. My one DVD out at a time translated into about 5 DVDs a year. The selection on streaming isn't bad if you're like me... someone who's busy enough that they're about 2 years behind what's "current". My only beef is that, because I'm still too busy to really watch anything, some movies disappear before I can get to them.

On the plus side... I pay my $8 and netflix doesn't seem to mind that I'm streaming to a Wii, an X-box, an i-pod, and a PC. Sometimes I have 2 or mores streaming at the same time and I haven;t heard a peep out of them in complaint.

[handyguy]

You can have multiple streams....

[jagabo]

You can have multiple streams....

They used to limit the number of streams to the number of DVDs in your subscription. I was on the 1 DVD at a time plan and could only watch one stream. I wonder what the new limit is?

[edDV]

I'm probably going to change my 2x DVD + stream to 1x DVD to keep the price the same.

I'm running out of DVD selections anyway.

I think the streaming selection is fine. I have a very long instant queue list. Cable goes before streaming.


BTW: the 2xDVD plan translates into ~4 DVD/week in my experience.

[Seeker47]

I'm running out of DVD selections anyway.

I think the streaming selection is fine. I have a very long instant queue list. Cable goes before streaming.

Hah ! About 400 titles currently in my disc queue. (This despite the fact that not a week goes by when I don't come up with a couple titles I'd like that they don't have -- and probably NO ONE has -- because they are O.O.P / too rare / Foreign or too obscure.) Only about 100 titles in the streaming queue, plus another 150 or so in the Saved (known to them, but they don't currently have it, and can't say if or when they might get it) queue.

I am kind of impressed by the fact that for many titles that may have just begun to circulate on the film festival circuit, NF will at least know about them, which you can confirm by the fact that they can be entered at all in your "Saved" section. So, some of their people must be on the ball and tracking this stuff. Doesn't mean they will actually offer that title any time in the next 5 years, but I guess it's something.

[edDV]

Guess I have DVD selection fatigue. Running out of ideas. If the list gets long again I'll up the plan.

I also go for the foreign+obscure discs but now lots of that is in the instant selection.

My "saved" (no longer available) list is around 40 titles.

BTW: Netflix introduced their Latin America / Caribbean product today.

[hudsonf]

Netflix streaming is going to lose a lot of content. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/09/netflix-to-lose-starz-it...ew-movies.html

[budwzr]

I'm surprised at all the uproar, canceling plans, etc.

$8 a month doesn't even register on my budget. Must be a lot of Po' Boys here. Here in SoCal $8 is one small beer in a plastic cup at the fair.