No. The price is going to stay the same forever. Honestly, Netflix people are really damn spoiled. Yes, the price will go up at some point, deal with it. Even if the price was $20 a month it's still better than cable and 90% cheaper. You want streaming all in one place with original shows? You have to pay for it. I'm sure by then the price will go up to $10, but not anytime soon because other companies are trying to bring Netflix down.
I dunno, Netflix customers seem awfully price sensitive and liable to kick them to the curb if upset. Hasn't Netflix learned that little lesson? Anyway, I pay a big $20/month for Netflix which beats the heck out of the $80/month that Comcast was getting from me before I finally got totally fed up with them. Netflix has a huge advantage of not needing to offer live sports, the costs of which are going nuts and it's only going to get worse. Cable and satellite can get away with this because sports viewers are not price sensitive enough to scream their heads off and cut the cord, even if that means giving up watching sports for good. I'd rather ally myself with the price sensitive crowd, since that's the only way that corporate greed can even theoretically be kept in line.
There are 2 separate deals announced here. Deal 1) Netflix scoops the ''Pay tv window'' from Starz, for Disney owned theatrical films starting in 2016... meaning that 6 months in theaters, then 6 months after the ''dvd sales window'', Netflix Instant streaming gets those new releases, just as HBO, SHO, and Starz does with current movies, Starz will continue to be the pay tv home of Disney theatricals until their current agreement ends in 2016. Deal 2) is for catalog titles which began Tuesday. The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pocahontas, James and the Giant Peach, Dumbo and Alice in Wonderful and several others have already been added. Starz controlled the catalog rights as well, but no longer. And for those wondering, the first 6 Star Wars films will not be streamed on Instant Watch. 20th Century Fox retains distribution rights (theatrical, home vid, tv syndication), so they aren't a part of this deal.
Yeah, it's artifical scarcity. The question is, as consumers get used to technlogy breaking down all excuses to scarcity - there's no tecnological reason why Netflix can't give you what you want, when you want it, it's just a matter of securing the rights - will they still accept any form of scarcity? After all, doesn't piracy offer everything you want, right when you want it? (I don't know from direct experience. )
Not that it really matters in this thread (I was just angry with Netflix because I was only half way through SG-1) but the point is just what I said. I don't spend $8 a month, my brother got me a gift subscription.