The company's previous $7.99 plan would get you one DVD at a time and unlimited streaming. That is now being split, so that a physical DVD plan is $7.99 and Web streaming is $7.99, for a total of $15.98. It amounts to an additional $120 a year.
Tuesday's smooth move is creating a drama of major proportions, with 33,000+ subscribers telling Netflix where it can stick its DVDs on the company's Facebook page. Another 6,000 have
stormed the Netflix blog, while #DearNetflix at Twitter is also aflutter with promises of "a mass exodus." Among the common complaints is that the service's streaming choices are lame, void of many current and new releases.Many are seeing red—as in Redbox, the popular $1 rental service available at thousands of grocery stores and other retailers. Others say they'll drop Netflix for Hulu, Amazon Prime, illegal Torrents downloads... and old-fashioned cable TV (my primary choice). Meanwhile, another innovation on the horizon is MoviePass, which lets you watch as many movies in theaters as you can muster for $50 a
month by showing your smartphone. Very clever. It's beta testing in San Francisco. There's also... books!
To be fair, Netflix's price increase likely has to do with movie studios sticking it to the company to pay for streamed content, amid increased competition from Google, Amazon, Hulu and the like.
Netflix's licensing costs will rise from $180 million in 2010 to $1.98 billion in 2012. When the model was new, Netflix was able to secure contents right from Warner Bros. and MTV for $5 million to $10 million a year. No more.
Netflix has more than 23 million subscribers. Or at least it did on Monday. In addition to many colorful comments, some deemed the price hike "corporate suicide."
I do the Netflix thing. I don't like the hike but if their prices are being hiked, they need to hike ours so they don't loose money. I just wish they would stream a lot more movies and tv shows. I like to do both. I heard the movie pass came to halt because something about the movie theaters not giving the ok to have this happen. It's a shame too because I think it's a real good idea since movies cost way to much nut to mention the popcorn and soda. Who knows, maybe they will be able to get it started again. :)
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