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7 New Images from THE DARK KNIGHT RISESEditorial: Why Netflix Doesn’t Owe You Cheap Movies
by Matt Goldberg Posted:July 14th, 2011 at 11:17 am
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Netflix is one of the biggest online success stories of the past decade. After years of Blockbuster dominating the rental market, Netflix first entered the fray by selling a mail-order DVD selection that went far beyond what any single store could offer. But their real triumph was when they began streaming their movies online and then expanded to hardware like TiVo, Roku, and gaming consoles. Now they’ve moved into the mobile market and their streaming library continues to expand. While cable companies and studios struggle to compete with their own VOD services, Netflix offers a variety and breadth of titles far beyond its competitors.
So I was shocked and dismayed when there was a backlash to the company’s recent announcement that they would be raising their prices. Hit the jump for my explanation of why Netflix needs to charge more in order to stay competitive and to keep the massive streaming library that made it so popular in the first place.
The previous Netflix plan allowed folks to have a $7.99/month plan where customers could get one mail-order disc at a time and unlimited streaming. This is the plan I have and it will now go up to $15.98/month starting in September. I will pay it gladly. The new price comes from a $7.99 unlimited streaming plan plus a $7.99 one-disc at a time rental plan. Since there are plenty of movies I want to see that aren’t on Watch Instantly, I’ll pay for both and it’s still a steal.
So why the sudden price hike and why is it so drastic? Because the studios previously underestimated the value of streaming their movies and sold the licensing rights to Netflix for far less than the libraries were worth. However, those licensing contracts are starting to expire and studios aren’t going to make the same mistake twice. Furthermore, since some of the studios (or rather, their parent companies) have launched or are attempting to launch their own VOD services and may attempt to use Netflix’s subscription-based model, Netflix is no longer the only game in town. This will lead to bidding wars over content and Netflix needs the revenue to make those bids and keep those licenses otherwise the streaming library goes back to where it started: loads of junk titles and public domain crap that wasn’t worth anything in the first place.
And no customer wants that, but how is Netflix supposed to pay to keep the service competitive? Netflix did themselves no favors in their press release where they tried to make the price increase seem like a great deal for customers while neglecting to explain why the increase was necessary to keep the company competitive in the VOD market. I imagine that a large amount of the outrage comes from ignorance of how the business of licensing movies works and perhaps if Netflix had said “Hey, you like the selection we offer in Watch Instantly? Guess what: it goes bye-bye if we don’t have more money to pay for it,” (said in PR-speak, of course) then maybe customers would be willing to forgive the increase.
But even without the explanation, the outrage is baffling. No one owes you Netflix. If that $16/month is outrageous, then don’t pay for it and you won’t get movies and somehow you’ll mange to survive. If you think there’s a better deal out there that offers the selection of Netflix for a lower price, then make the switch. One day, HuluPlus may be a serious competitor but they lack the film selection of Netflix. You can drop the DVD-rental aspect of your plan and go to Redbox or try to find a Blockbuster, but you’ll never get the massive selection that Netflix offers on DVD.
This article isn’t to shill for Netflix but to express my disappointment at those who think they’re entitled to what a great service offers and feel that a $9 increase is unacceptable. It smacks of a culture where people want to drive on roads and have firefighters but hate paying the taxes that go to funding those public services. Even in the private sector, if you don’t like what’s being offered then you can usually go elsewhere unless a company has a virtual monopoly like Time Warner Cable does in New York. Netflix hasn’t shut out other streaming services. They’ve just risen to the top of the heap and with good reason. If you don’t think what they offer is worth the new price, then don’t pay for it. But there’s no reason to get pissy about it.
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Hey Matt, how many movies have you rated on NetFlix? Not reviewed, just rated. I’m trying to rate every movie/tv show I’ve ever seen, and I want to see how I compare to another cinephile. So far, I’m at 1539.
Well said Matt
I’ve got no beef against Netflix. After Sony pulled their streaming content, I understood immediately the reason for the price increase. My beef is with the studios, who once again want to gouge us on films that have made back their negative costs a dozen times over. The “bottleneck” model skewed the market for so long, the studios (like the record companies) can’t adapt to a new paradigm where the bottleneck doesn’t work, or is at least really leaky. I don’t break the law, so I don’t use torrents. So why keep driving me that way? I’m sorry you can’t get people to pay $30 for a Bluray remaster of a 40 year old film. Maybe the days of the fleecing double dip are over.
To be fair, I have been surprised at how long they have managed to keep it so slow up until now. I have spent the last two years laughing at how cheap it has been. So there’s an increase now, and I, for one, will not even flinch at paying it. I kinda feel I have been getting away with it, only paying $7.99 a month for so long. When it was just the DVD service, it was still pretty good, but the amount I watch on Instant View is now ridiculous. Easily worth the money, and the increase is completely fair to keep Netflix competitive.
If this price hike means I get more and better content at my fingertips then so be it! For instance, I am only a casual fan of Star Trek, I like to watch a random episode here and there, doesn’t matter which series, DS9 or the original. What I like is knowing that for my $8 a month I can watch any episode I want any time I want without having to invest nearly $1000 to own every season of each series. Since I don’t get much in DVD rentals from them anymore I feel this pricing is more than fair…again, as long as the content keeps improving.
yourself that has the outlet to reach these cry-babies, taking the time to even write this article in the first place. I have the 4 at a time plan and my plan is only going up $2. No big deal and they could have got me for more if they wanted to. Bottom line, you just can’t get the same content ANYWHERE else. Not even close, so don’t even attempt to debate it. Redbox sucks and if you can find a Blockbuster store, than please tell us all where Hoffa and the Holy Grail are too.
They funny thing is that the people doing the most crying are those who are most affected by the hike because they’re on the cheapest plan. How can you expect to get all the online content AND at least 4-5 DVD rentals a month for $10!!! You can’t even get 2 rentals at Blockbuster for that price, and these are mailed to your front door!
This writer needs to learn the difference between “disappointment” and “entitlement”. No one is arguing that they’re “entitled” to anything, except in your straw man caricature of the situation.
And you feel fine saying that no one is lashing out from a sense of entitlement? You know this for a fact or is that opinion being stated to bolster your own deconstruction of his editorial?
Kinda calling the kettle black…
I wont mind the increase if they start streaming newer movies…If not, my dollars will be better spent elsewhere…
My beef isn’t about an increase, I don’t like that it is going up $6 for me for certain, but my beef about the increase is WHERE it is increasing. The increase isn’t IN the streaming content where they are having the exponential increase in costs, they are increasing the price for discs, which unless I’m mistaken, haven’t went up in years.
They introduced a streaming ONLY plan last year for $7.99. How much is the streaming only plan with this new increase in costs for streaming, oh wait, it is still $7.99. Netflix wants to force people INTO the streaming option, that is where their future is and they know this. So to help push users in that direction, they are increasing those who were using both services costs per month in an attempt to move the user in that direction. I know MANY netflix subscribers who are switching to a streaming only plan because of this. Exactly what Netflix wants, they have said it many a time in fact. Again, I’m not really complaining about the increase itself, I knew it was coming, but the shell game Netflix is playing is what has bothered me about this situation. For me, I won’t be seeing an increase as I’m just dropping a disc from 2 blu rays down to 1, and keeping my streaming. The cost basically comes out to a wash. Which is fine, I wasn’t using as many discs as I was a few years ago when I was going through about 6 a week anyways.
I don’t care about the price at all!
i’d pay 60+ a month if it gave us the ability to stream any movie we wanted-
People aren’t complaining about how expensive it is. People are complaining about the size of the increase. 60% is a bit much all at once. Also it would have been very nice for an EXPLANATION for the size of the increase. All we got was a “hey your rates are going up this much, here’s a link to cancel if you don’t like it”. This really shows a disconnect in Netflix’ care about it’s customers.
Will this allow them to upgrade the quality of streamed video? I have yet to see a good, let alone high quality movie streamed. I’ll keep the service, as it is good enough for watching TV shows, but for a 60% increase they better start upgrading some stuff.
You may want to look at your connection speed… what medium are you using? PS3? Roku? TiVo? There are a ton of factors that could affect your viewing experience. Ever since they updated PS3′s streaming sometime earlier this year or late last year to HD, it has been mostly glorious…
Price increase? What a surprise! See how the studios will blame Piracy for people not paying for their overpriced movies. Here in Britain the gas water and electricity are skyrocketing past what people can afford, and now, even sat at home freezing we wont even have enough to watch a movie at home. The revolution is coming!
There are a lot of really wild and insulting assumptions made in this article. The fact of the matter is that Netflix has systematically removed a great number of the features that made it so endearing to me in the first place. The Friends features went away. The lists went away. The viewer reviews have been drastically neutered to the point that they’re completely useless because there’s no similarity score. Content providers are playing hardball with them, so much so that they lost the Criterion Collection streaming (went to Hulu) and Sony/Starz has removed a great deal of their films. And now they’re asking me to swallow much larger prices for a product that’s diminished a great deal over the last few years. Does that really make me “entitled”? Is it “entitlement” to expect the same service you’ve had? Or that if you’re going to pay more, perhaps you should at least get the same product… and not a diminished one?
Your missunderstading a lot of people Matt….Its not about being entitled but rather people feeling lied to. People are angry because they weren’t given a reason for the huge price increase and were told that these new price plans were the cheapest ever when this is a bit of a lie. Most people don’t understand that the movie industry are the real greedy people here but they see the price increase and think its Netflix thats being greedy. Netflix should just have told people the truth, that it costs alot of money to keep there service running and that they had no choice but to do this. Matt I understand that since you understand the entertainment industry that this is common sense to you but for most it is not, so don’t be rude and look down on those who aren’t as enlightened as you. I studied a little PR in school and I’m not surprised that they are getting this much back lash…in the end if you understand the feelings of your consumers you will succeed and if you don’t you won’t.
So throw the blame and public backlash at the people who they are about to negotiate with? Will the studios now feel better about making a deal with Netflix and keep the prices low?
You make it sound like an extra $8 a month isn’t that big of a deal. That adds up to nearly $100 of increase after one year. And in the press release they offered no sign of improving service, and no apology. They underestimated the intelligence of their customer base when they tried to pass off a price increase as a good thing.
It’s understandable that they have to do it. But at least give customers a fair explanation and a little something more for all that dough.
If Netflix provided a “great” service, I probably would be less annoyed. But they keep raising the rates, get slower in delivery all the time, send out horrible condition DVDs, and have a very weak streaming library.
This article comes off angrier than the loyal customers Netflix has upset. Let’s be honest, if Little Caesars started charging 9 dollars for pizza instead of 5, who would go there? They should reward people who bundle services because they will stay with the company. Most will back down to only one service (streaming or dvds) and will jump ship as soon as something else comes along.
Goldberg-
Your snarky title and flawed premise hold nuggets of truth, but overall you’re way off the mark.
No one is idiotic enough to think Netflix is a sovereign right to be had by all. It’s asinine to infer customers feel they are “owed” this service.
Plain and simple, it’s about the numbers. The rates keep going up and this particular bump was the last straw for many subscribers.
Every friend, family member, and co-worker I’ve spoken with regarding the rate increase is either cutting their service in half or dropping it all together.
It’s a basic, shrewd business model. You undercut the competition (see: Blockbuster) and once they’re all but out of the picture you jack up the prices because there is little alternative. Starbucks did it for years. Nothing new.
It should go without saying that people who don’t like it will get their movie fix elsewhere. Redbox will be getting the bulk of my Netflix money from here on.
You feel the service is worth the 60% increase. Awesome. Have fun paying it. Don’t berate those that don’t see the value.
I get that the studios and assorted powers-that-be are seeing dollar signs and jacking up licensing rights and Netflix has to pass the cornholing onto its customers. Doesn’t mean I’m going to let it slide.
People are mad that a service they enjoyed for several years has increased their rates to a point where they either can’t afford it or no longer feel it’s worth it. They’re bummed. Outraged. Same if their favorite restaurant increased prices by 60%.
Regardless, we’ll get over it. We’ll survive. Wonder if the same can be said for Netflix…
Well said, Stinky. I agree with everything you say.
How many times have their prices gone up? This is the first increase I’ve heard of.
The comparison to a restaurant raising its prices 60% only makes sense if it happens because distributors increase the cost of food and supplies significantly at the same time.
The licensing costs are expected to rise from about $200M to almost $2B. That’s a 900% increase, which Netflix is going to take the hit from in order to stay competitive. A 60% increase is peanuts compared to what the studios are doing, but everyone’s ticked off at Netflix for some reason.
Look at it this way – studios underestimated the value in streaming licenses, and Netflix fleeced them on it. But instead of charging these new prices from the beginning, they’ve passed the saving onto their customers for years.
But no, it’s cool, Netflix is in the wrong here because they won’t simply eat $2 billion in expenses so you can keep on saving $6 a month.
Markus-
Netflix upped the ante something like a dollar per month late last year. Not sure when it was hiked up before that.
I know the cost for Netflix to stream movies increases every year. They dropped about $200 million in 2010.
Yes, a CNN report cited someone named Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, stating he “predicts” the licensing costs to rise to almost $2 billion in 2012.
A prediction. Still, I can see it happening… just as easily as I can see it not happening.
Early on, Netflix secured contracts for tens of millions. They weren’t fleecing anyone. That was the going rate.
What’s the difference? Competition. Amazon, Hulu and all the rest are knocking on the studios door wanting to stream their movies. Studios are in prime position to get these companies to pay the big bucks.
Netflix clearly stated that this rate hike has been in the works for some time. No movie studios started calling them last week asking for more cash. Their contracts are good for a few more years.
The problem is the once very popular, customer-friendly company is making a fundamental shift. They are dropping all this coin on streaming movies and will probably phase out what made them a success to begin with- sending discs through the mail. If that’s where the trend is going, so be it.
Not to mention… what is new with the streaming selection? Anything? Where’s the value? Still the same mediocre selection.
The streaming movie wars are beginning and everyone has their guns pointed toward Netflix. Just like Netflix did to Blockbuster, someone will swoop in and undercut them. Then they’ll jack up the prices and we’ll be right back here bitching and complaining because, shocker, movie studios charge too much.
Now you’ll have to excuse me, I need to reserve my Captain America 3D movie ticket for $14.50.
Personally, I’ve seen a huge improvement in the streaming library. They added a whole mess of shows recently, including what looks like every season of every Star Trek series. 5 seasons of Rescue Me, 9 seasons of Scrubs, they had all 6 seasons of LOST at some point, Spartacus, and now Med Men. Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock… that’s a lot of good stuff to go up against Hulu with.
They may not be streaming new releases yet, but I have a feeling it’s moving in that direction.
I do see your point (yes, there are people who complain a lot, whether they’re justified or not), but Netflix “services” are nowhere near the same as the issue of taxpayers fighting to pay more taxes, but then wanting the benefits (road work, police, fire, etc.) that need taxpayer funding.
No customer truly likes raises in prices. Some may easily accept them, others not so easily. And yet even more people might fight it. And others will just straight out cancel their memberships as a result.
That’s their prerogative. It’s also their prerogative to complain, and whine even. Just let them be. If they want to complain, let them complain. The complaints will die down eventually, and sooner than later. Let them vent.
I agree with the others who says it’s not a matter of entitlement. Again, paying for Netflix isn’t the same as wanting or not wanting to pay more taxes for road services in one’s community. When prices go up, people want to know what’s in it for them. Why the price raise? Will it make service better? Will that translate into more options? Will that put more discs into circulation, so they don’t have to wait as long to get that one movie they really want to see?
Will they have to downgrade their membership now? Especially in this economy, with so many millions unemployed and prospects not looking much better, any increase in what is ultimately just a form of entertainment is going to raise people’s ire.
Let them be. You’re venting, and probably feel better. Let them vent as well. They’ll also feel better.
I’ve always been of the opinion that the service was only so good, but what do you expect for $8. If they are taking on another 7 dollars you are getting into a different psychology. I expect more. I spend that much on satellite radio but I don’t have bandwith issues to worry about. Here in Canada we don’t have unlimited gigabytes so I often get extra fees at the end of the month too. Essentially they are forcing me into a bundled service that I wont use much as well as we tend to be impulse movie watchers. Not likely I’m going to plan it a few days ahead to get it in the mail
Now that’s a customer friendly attitude – piss off if you don’t like it! I’m betting a lot of people will and those Christmas gift certificates will surely diminish as well (which build membership).
The issue to me is the price of the streaming membership only – it’s the same as the DVD one and the costs of shipping/handling the discs far outweighs the cost of delivering a show via streaming. Furthermore, the selection of the streaming TV/movies is by far inferior to the DVD one and hence Netflix is only “whole” by using both mediums. $16 is not worth it to me as there are alternatives such as Crackle (which is great),MDC (?)which I will try, Hulu plus is commercial ridden but palatable, and the list goes on for free shows. So, if the streaming isn’t better by Sept 1 – I’ll say “piss off” and survive quite nicely with the aforementioned options. Should Netflix improve their streaming selection in the future – I’d probably go back.
“Pachter predicts Netflix’s streaming content licensing costs will rise from $180 million in 2010 to a whopping $1.98 billion in 2012.” For those keeping score at home, that’s a 900% increase in streaming licensing costs to Netflix, which makes a 60%, $8 increase in the monthly plan look like nothing in comparison.
This is after they added every Star Trek show that ever aired, a load of other series like Rescue Me, Scrubs, and Mad Men coming soon. The library already blows away any competing service, and it’s only expanding.
People, it’s not about the price. It’s not about getting “cheap movies”.. it’s about how Netflix is treating it’s most loyal longterm customers like crap.. for about 3 years now. If they had never removed everything I once loved with zero explanation other than “only 2% used it”, if they had any kind of customer service, this price increase wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
Uh, first Netflix “selection” is crap they put out more and more movies from the times of the 70′s, and others you didn’t even hear of on streaming. You (Netflix) put the crap on streaming then all the “good” movies if you can find any has to be sent as DVD. And the craziest thing is say you want to watch a series say like Naurto cartoon, or Law and Order, or a movie that is a triology you maybe able to get the first movie on streaming, and possiblely the third but not the second, or reverse that you can get the second installment of something but not the other two, instant or DVD because it doesn’t have it. No doubt Netflix has a wide range of movies, but its range of moives consist of older movies, where the people that grew up watching those are our grandparents, or dead. You might luck out and get something old and good, but the the best stuff if they even is a such a thing with Netflix you have to wait for in the mail. These compaines did nothing stupid by liscening out their rights to Netflix cause in the end all Netflix got was old ass movies that nobody wants to see, and a incompelete DVD selection that makes Blockbuster laugh.
Yeah, Yeah, oh Netflix needs money continue their support their wide range of movies that nobody wants to see, and the reason for people’s up roar about the cost is due to their own igronance of the liscening world, but keep in mind its the average person. If you didn’t go to school for it, or even was just curious of how all that works then your not going to know.
You know what the average person knows, the people that matter, the people that, if you want to think about it, Netflix and compaines like them cater to, you know what they know, where your igornance shows is the ecomony, where gas prices are through the roof, where food stores pricing is more for less, People’s rent is being raised every year. And now Netflix wants to raises their prices for the only little thing nice people actually had to look forward too?
7.99/month was the best the could have gotten with Netflix, and now they want to charge 15.98/month, 7.99 for a old and out-dated streaming selection and a inconsistent DVD selection…don’t believe me, I’ll give you two items to find on Netflix one is a movie Chill Factor, and the other is a TV show Naurto season 3, I’ll even help you they’ll both won’t be in streaming, find them and make sure you look at the DVD availability, make sure it doesn’t say DVD availability unknown. Find them and I’ll shut up, find them and I’ll pay your you subsricption for the month. I dare you.
Matt you need to get off that high horse your on and get down here with the rest of us. The price hike is ridiculous and if your to stupid to see that then you need to pull the horse shoe out of your ass. People don’t have the money to afford this right now. Not everyone is a big shot Collider reporter with all your big shot money. Get over yourself.
Wait. So people have complained about paying more money? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
I’ve never heard of such a thing.
Funny.
My problem with the price jump is that Netflix stock is at what $286 a share? They do not come anywhere close to that in real capital, if they closed their doors do you think their creditors would have access to the 15 billion their shares are supposedly worth? No.
Secondly their new movies are 30-60 days older then redbox or blockbuster. So in any given month you can get 7 movies tops for $8 , factoring in the mail really only runs 5 out the 7 days (closed sunday, short day Sat and probably the netflix process center is closed sat), so roughly 21-23 days of the month the netflix processing center and mail is working, usually takes 1-2 days to send a watched movie back and 2-3 days to receive. My point is I’m paying a dollar more to watch not really new movies when I can go to redbox and reserve an actual new movie.
3rd as great as netflix is they do not have a customer service section on their website, they have a cookie cutter ticket thing to report a problem but if you do not fall into their problem guidelines you are SOL. I had issues last month with my PS3 and Roku streaming videos and could not report jack because it asks you if you have a problem streaming a video and what movie, no “I can not access netflix on this device or that device:. The ps3 resolved itself but the Roku still is glitchy as it gives me an error msg every log in and my instant que is missing.
So crappy customer service, paying more for “NOT NEW” releases and the fact they made billions without investing any real money on an internet site is why I feel I can complain
Way to miss the point, Matt. At least you succeeded in hit-whoring for your site.
I am on a tight budget and a $6.00 a month increase hurts. That is grocery money to me. I don’t know what I will do yet, but I can’t afford to maintain the streaming/DVD service I have now. I like streaming movies while I am waiting for a DVD to arrive in the mail, but it isn’t all that great. The selection and video quality will have to improve a lot before I would consider going the streaming only route. The DVD only service is good but Netflix needs to get movies sooner after their release. The $9.99 deal was the best of both worlds. I will probably take the $7.99 DVD deal or cancel membership all together which will mean Netflix will make less money on me.
“The DVD only service is good but Netflix needs to get movies sooner after their release.”
You do realize this is a matter of the contracts signed with studios and not Netflix’s choice, right? The studios impose a 30 (60, 90, whatever) day period after new releases so they can make as much off new dvd/bluray sales as possible before people rent instead.
Netflix can’t move that date up without signing even more expensive contracts with the studios, and the price of those contracts is what’s behind THIS price increase. The same would go for expanding their streaming library.
People are complaining about the price going up, while demanding the type of services and perks that cause prices to go up.
I certainly have my gripes against Netflix. When they made it impossible to easily learn how my reviews have been rated, I quit reviewing and quit rating. They can no longer have any of my free content. Screw their recommendations; never that helpful anyway. And a prior poster is right. Customer service is absolutely minimal. No way to contact a human being with this company. I resent that. Having made those beefs, though, it’s still the rental service for me. I get 5-6 titles per month. Happy to wait a few weeks for new titles. Only one physical trip per DVD is required (to mail the disk back); not two, like Redbox. And since I never watch streaming, I’ll be saving $2 a month. So, this particular price increase works out fine for me.
Dumb. That’s what this article is. Just dumb. No one cares what it’s going to cost Netflix. That’s their problem. Rolling such a price increase out in one shot is a poor plan and they will lose business because of it. Furthermore, it better way to roll out an increase is to be able to announce something that makes it seem worth it. For example, landing a deal to stream a big studios movies. Their current library, while large, is really not that good. The got the foreign movies, documentaries, and a good number television shows going for them, as well as the old stuff. But for movie buffs that stay on top of the newest releases, streaming just is not cutting it.
“No one cares what it’s going to cost Netflix. That’s their problem.” Of course! Who cares about things like staying in business, or simple math. Gas used to be $1 a gallon, the nerve of them to raise it to over $3 just because the cost of oil has gone up.
Companies don’t eat massive financial losses just to keep your already low prices fixed.
Hmm, explain why those company bosses get millions per year in bonuses. ? Oh right, we pay them with our money.
Price of oil barrels goes up, gas shoots up. Barrel prices go down, gas only goes down a tiny bit, or not at all, and they conjure up excuses. And the CEOs of these companies take home millions and millions a year. Nice try.
They weren’t dying when they were charging the previous prices. This price hike is not 100% necessary.
Who hates paying taxes for roads, firefighters, and police? That’s the only place they should go. I hate taxes going to our future universal health care and the other welfare programs. Cut that crap out and our economy can recover.
Oh shut the hell up and read a book. Would you rather pay $N into taxes and have free health, which doesn’t have to be available to just everyone, and wouldn’t be available to illegals and other offenders –OR– pay >$N into insurance, have huge deductibles and co-pays, only 70-80% coverage AFTER those things, and then they only cover things they think are applicable, all so you can take comfort in knowing that sinking all this money for a disproportionate return is worth it because it’s only helping you? That’s fucking selfish and stupid. A double whammy.
p.s. What the hell does this have to do with Netflix?
p.p.s Cut that and the economy can recover? You act like we have full blown UHC/NHS already. We don’t. We don’t even have a freaking public option thanks to crybabies like you. So what do you want to cut? Medicare and medicaid? One, you’re a cold bastard if you think old individuals don’t deserve some assistance. Two, not all poor people are down on their luck because of their own wrongdoings. Plenty of them deserve healthcare as much as jerks like you.
The title of the article should be:
Why I Don’t Owe Netflix My Money
Matt, your ego ruins this site.
I agree. But a perfect comparison is the Lebron James backlash. It wasn’t what he did, it’s how he did it. Same thing here.
I’m dumping Netflix and it’s not because I’m seeking “cheap” movies. I do want some value for my money, though. I’ve been a customer for nearly 10 years, starting with the 5-at-a-time plan. I’m now down to one at a time plus streaming, which for my use, is priced about right. I’m to the point where I’ve seen most of the catalog stuff I want to see. It’s impossible for me to get a new release until months after NF’s already 30-day delay with the throttling I’m subjected to because I use the service. Blu-ray? I tried that a couple of months and got no more than one of my selections a month.
It’s something I thought I would never say, but Blockbuster on-line has become the better deal and will get my money from now on.
Complaining is complaining. Most people are on a pretty tight budget nowadays and the future looks tighter. So… Netflix prices going up is a disappointment. We are dumping the DVD part, ourselves (dumped blu-ray when they raised that price, too). I imagine a great deal of people will be switching to Redbox for the newer releases like we will.
Not sure what Netflix can do about all this. There’s pressure from consumers, pressure from studios, and pressure from internet service providers. Sucks all around.
You can’t compare governmental public services to a monopolistic Netflix for SO many reasons; apples to oranges my friend. You are wrong on many, many levels economically.
What I am upset about is how Netflix included unlimited streaming with an unlimited DVD plan for over a year and then decided to dramatically switch it’s pricing structure. This is the classic bait-and-switch, but legally they have protected themselves in the subscription agreement.
Furthermore, now that the plans are separate they can create a new plan structure in the future for streaming subscribers. Of course Netflix will market this as benefiting the customer, but expect “$ per hour” plans as another price hike down the road.
Hopefully this post survives Collider censorship :-/
Honestly Matt, this was a stupid article for you to post. Why insult and piss off the very people you are catering your site too. That just doesn’t make good business sense for your self and the website. Especially when it comes to topics such as saving money. You would never win in that category because only the rich aren’t trying to save money and dont get upset when something they have been accustomed to suddenly raises their prices. Its understandable and you just come off as a well off Snob. You also sound like a sales rep for Netflix lol
People will always be outraged when a service that previously cost one thing ends up going up without the service improving at all. I’d bet even with this price hike that Netflix will actually begin to get worse as time goes on just from pure competition, but also because Netflix currently dominates the market.
The real question is how much was the price drive put out because Netflix knows now is the time to milk their cash-cow, and how much of it was done to stay competitive?
I don’t use Netflix so I could really care less, but if a service I’ve relied on for years all of a sudden wanted to double the cost then I’d be pretty annoyed, its something I didn’t budget for and now I have to either shell out the cash with nowhere else to go, or find somewhere else. It is inconvenient.
Also Netflix’s streaming video database isn’t very good to begin with and most of the movies I want to see from Netflix when I did have it (or when I go to friends places) need to be ordered, so 1 dvd at a time is just stupid.
I think it used to be 15 a month for streaming + 2 or 3 movies at a time.
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Even if the price is still worth it, there should never be a sudden 60% increase in the price of any service. Conditions have not simply changed over night. The price increase means that something was horribly wrong: either the price was far too low in the first place or the price is far too high now. It doesn’t make good business sense. They should have softened the blow, by either gradually increasing price over time, or by launching a significantly better Streaming library at the higher price.
The key factor in this decision does not seem to be rising business costs, but Netflix’s monopoly status. Without a major competitor, they could probably double or triple their prices and still be the best deal around. Until a service rises to challenge them, customers are at the mercy of Netflix’s price demands.
Thanks for the article.
This might come as news to some people, but unlimited entertainment is not a basic human right. They do business, not charity.
That being said, people do have the right to complain and get what they think is reasonable for their patronage, but people can get pretty ridiculous with their demands. You mean to tell me that you used to pay $7.99 for a DVD delivered to your door and unlimited streaming and now you will pay $14 and think that’s unfair?! How many TV show have you watched? How many films have you watched? 10, 15, 20, 30 a month? That’s $1 per movie, maybe $.50 cents.
How quickly does the world owe you something… And it gets worse with people like one that just commented above about this editorial pissing people off because it says what they don’t want to hear. People don’t want to be inconvenienced, people don’t want to be pissed off, they want it all and they want to pay dirt cheap for what they get and they want it to be the best they can get. How does that make sense? It doesn’t.
You’re absolutely right. When I signed up for the service I was stunned at what I was getting for $7.99. It really is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I knew full well to enjoy the price now. I fully expect to be paying more for this in the future-and it’ll still be worth it.
They ran everyone else out of business, or close to it, and then hiked up their prices because they have a very small, near-monopoly. I can kinda respect this from a business standpoint, but as a consumer I’m annoyed. And with good reason. Plain and simple. I will be downgrading to save.
As many have already stated and I will too. The price increase I don’t care to much about, however with this happening I do hope they expand their streaming service. I cannot tell you the number of times I have searched for a title (most of the time 3+ years old which would imply I am not looking for a new release but something I would have hope they had at this time available to watch) only to see the lovely, but mostly disappointing icon of “DVD Only”. I mean come on! So because I do not want to wait the week it takes to get (ok 3 days or so) I run to Blockbuster and rent it. Thus explaining that I have already been paying a price increase because of lack of availability in their streaming library.
You may ask why the urgency? Why not wait for it to come in the mail? Because most of the time it’s because I have my kids and we get in a conversation about a movie I remember seeing as a child and want them to see it (I must mention I get my kids every other weekend) so excitedly we load up the Wii or Xbox to find it and yes it’s there !!!… DVD Only
. So off we go to Blockbuster to rent it.
Inclosing on this rant… I just hope they add more movies to their streaming library now. I’m not asking for new releases which could be an argumentative stance of rights to distribute streaming blah blah blah … (one wonders how On Demand gets their rights so quickly… just saying) but classic would be nice!!!
I totally agree with you and was waiting for the day when Netflix would raise their prices as they practically give their movies away.
As far as the people who are complaining, I have a feeling they are the same people who don’t pay taxes (48 % of our population receives unearned income) and feel entitlement to the services paid by others.
What do you think?
Linda
Matt I think you miss the point of why people are upset, Netflix has diminished their service recently and then asked the customer for a increase. I see the value of Netflix but I see three major problems with them.
1. Their content while vast isn’t that great really, once you take out the 3 – 2 star content and the reality show tv crap your left with very few real movies you’d like to see and those often end up being see and done. Starz makes up over half their new content and it’s up for new contract next year with many of the pieces of the contract already getting close to being pulled due to stipulations in viewership. While I don’t mind paying more for netflix I shouldn’t have to do that until I see something they’ve increased which they havent yet.
2.) Newer movies and better content. In order to get the deals that netflix has so far they’ve had to make deals where they don’t get new content for over 90 days past the initial release, so far this has been with Starz and in dvd’s but the studios are clearly showing they’d like to push that window out further in a attempt to increase their own windows of sales, as such we can expect to be paying more now for streaming of content that will not be new for at least 4 – 8 months or more after initial release unless Starz get the films and they arent a sony distributed movie or perhaps Disney as their contract is up soon as well. this feeds directly into me wondering why I’m paying more when they havent proven to be able to get more content out quicker yet. Sure they have mad men coming but that’s it, and frankly that’s a waste of money, I picked up all the dvd’s for $10 a season months ago showing that the studio is happy pricing that media out quite cheaply. and therein lies the problem, Netflix is basically being offered cheap media for lots of money and adding it to their roster and acting like its a deal. I don’t need to see the kardashians or any 1 – 3 star movies. and I don’t need to keep getting shows that are easy to find elsewhere, I’d like to see netflix take those funds and buy worthwhile content
3.) Actually using Netflix, Netflix is getting bigger and their biggest problems will be actually being able to use it, they’ve had continued problems for months now with their servers and network issues. almost every week I’ve seen reports of issues and yet for such a large network you’d think they’d get a handle on that. The next problem I see is that ISP’s will be capping data plans soon enough and Netflix users will top out fairly quickly if they use the service heavily. All cable providers would have to do right now is provide a simple $10 a month on demand service bundled into their package with content from their own providers and Netflix would easily be beat, Comcast for one already has something out there like this, it wouldn’t take much more work for them to expand the library and beat netflix and the service wouldn’t eat up our internet bandwith nor would we have to rely on Netflix servers.
3.)
AMEN!
Netflix sucks! We will drop their service and return to Redbox! At least redbox has all the new movies available too for much cheaper, often free! The selection on netflix streaming sucks! A lot of movies have disappeared. Do they really think I am going to pay more money? I am an extreme coupon mom with 3 kids. Think again!!!! Quit trying to screw over the public, Netflix! I’m gonna laugh when you lose to another company! Bad things always come to those who are greedy!
Sounds like you’re the pissy one. Studios can charge less, Netflix can charge less, or we will download movies for free. It’s time to embrace it.