Netflix's Price Hike For More Streaming Content?

[dhvd79a]

I've been on streaming only for about 3 months now. In that time I have watched about 2 movies. The streaming content is not very good and the UI is horrible. I am thinking about dropping netflix completely. If all I want to watch are old movies I can get stream them from Amazon for free.

 

[ltrav3nw00d]

Of course with all this streaming going on, the ISP's want their cut as well ! Look to see more bandwidth caps and higher prices.

 

[Guest]

@tztlz - Yes! I want to buy some cheap benefits of thing. Where do I sign up you illiterate jungle bunny con artist criminal ?

 

[cadder]

Their library available for streaming is pitiful. They have a few new TV series but rarely any of the ones that I want to watch. And the DVD's available for streaming are mostly older B movies. Almost all DVD's that we want to watch are only available by mail.

I've always thought that streaming was a temporary thing. Eventually the ISP's will catch on and when enough of their subscribers are doing streaming they will kill it with download limits. It won't do much good to subscribe to streaming if you are only allowed to stream one or two movies a month.

 

[robochump]

I can assume the DVD issue is all of the mailing costs that are eating into profits. Until Netflix seriously upgrades their stream service to include new releases the DVD will not die. Then of course hear more about ISPs complaining about Netflix sucking up bandwidth!!! lol

 

[hellwig]

For everyone complaining about Netflix, you are free to move to Vudu or Blockbuster streaming. Of course, you're talking $3.99 PER MOVIE. So yeah, streaming 2 movies off Vudu or Blockbuster and you've reached your DVD shipping costs. True, Vudu and Blockbuster have better streaming offerings than Netflix, but you PAY for that content selection.

You want physical DVDs, shipped directly to your house, for cheaper than you could stream those same movies from Vudu or Blockbuster? I would say Netflix kept their prices too low for too long. NO, I don't work for Netflix or own stock, and I've never used their DVD service. However, I do recall a story not too long ago about how Netflix barely made any money off their DVD service (something like 8-cents a rental), back when it was $15/mo unlimited and $9.99/mo for 1-disk-at-a-time, and they didn't have to pay the studios for access to their streamable content back then. So the fact that you now have to pay $8 for DVDs and $8 for streaming still sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Yes, it sucks if you can't afford it anymore, that's life. Netflix isn't a charity, they're a business.

Prices ALWAYS go up. I remember when Burger King used to have $1 Whopper sales when I was a kid, now the damn things are $3.99. Remember when Wrigleys gum was 25-cents (stamped onto each package none the less). It's something like 35-cents now, and I'm not sure they even bother advertising the price anymore. Did we get MORE whopper when the price went up, did we get more sticks up gum? No, but things cost more to produce, ship, etc.., and that price gets forwarded on to the customers. Netflix needs more money just to KEEP the content it already has, and you selfish simpletons are bitching that they aren't offering next seasons episodes of American Idol yet.

 

[ram1009]

NF has finally showed their A$$ to the world, something they did to me years ago shortly after I first signed up for mail delivery. Their claim of "unlimited" DVDs has always been a lie. They have secret limits on how many new releases you can rent in a given time period but they keep that info secret because it would disallow use of the word "unlimited". If you believe the "unlimited" claim and rent them as rapidly as possible you are certain to cross their line without knowing it and they then punish you by making new releases unavailable to you. The only indication you get is a notation in your queue for new releases that says "long wait" or "very long wait". You must figure out what's going on for yourself. I got on their $hit list almost immediately and am still there years later. Fortunately for me there's enough old content to keep me interested. I get new releases from Red Box. Also, their streaming content contains no sub titles which is a violation of law. They have refused to add subs until recently and are now doing so at a snails pace only to be able to say they are trying. These people are sharks with no regard for their subscribers, which should now be obvious to even the most casual observer. They actually increased their prices by 100% but did it in two increments to ease the pain. I hope Red Box, or anyone, buries them.

 

[i7Rocks]

[citation][nom]mobrocket[/nom]People crying about the price increase are blaming the wrong people... the studios are the ones that hold back new movies being streamed... netflix would stream if they could... and the whole, ITS a bad ecomony. argument... its so bad that google and apple are selling smart phones with $80+ a month data plans like hotcakes... americans just like to complain... and usually do so with little or no facts...[/citation]

they also love to complain about other people on message boards and use inflated "facts", who the F pays $80+ for a data plan? Probably people that use words like ecomony

 

[redguard117]

Since there are now A LOT more competitors for streaming, it is a sellers market for the studios. Netflix is still a relatively young company without the assets of its new competitors Google and Amazon. If Netflix wants to retain, let alone increase, its current streaming library its going to have to be prepared to pay up to TEN TIMES what it is currently to the studios as its contracts expire in 2012. This is studio greed, not Netflix greed. Google can afford paying a lot more than Netflix can for streaming, and as a result the studios will be able to negotiate much more lucrative deals than when Netflix started.

 

[Guest]

This move only will provide Netflix a advantage to force people to buy the Streaming/DVD option because they stand to gain more by doing so. I doubt Netflix will provide Streaming only customers much in terms of more content. Its just like Satellite companies who offer more popular channels throughout their packages to get subscribers to pay for the higher packages to get all the channels they want.

 

[mdillenbeck]

I remember the good old days when netflix didn't care about their streaming - it was only an "extra freebie" on top of your DVD service. Now that they are making it a fully stand alone component, I am going to hold much higher expectations on the service. This means when the audio is out of sync, I expect it to be fixed ASAP. I am expecting as close to 100% uptime they can get, not these regular several hour downtimes every week (or sometimes every few days) for several hours - even if it is the middle of the night (when I do most my watching).

In other words, you have now made streaming an separate service, and I expect quality for what I am paying for. You got rid of the free nature of it - make the quality match because a 60% price hike, even if "only $6/month" is quite a lot (considering I was only renting 1 DVD about every 3-6 months - and I am not going to pay $21-42/rental).