Is Netflix a Rip-off?

[Harvey]

Netflix is great, but the fact that they're operating without any real competition is troubling. I can't say I ever planned on renting Harmony Korine's TRASH HUMPERS, but Netflix's recent decision to not carry the title doesn't have the grandest of implications. What else will Netflix choose not to carry in the future, now that they've supplanted Blockbuster as the company with a near-complete monopoly on the home video rental market?

[Nerdius Maximus]

I love netflix. And now that you can stream movies and (tons of)tv shows through either your wii or blu-ray player, it's a steal. I use it constantly.

[J. Allen]

They just put up the entirety of BSG on Instant Watch. Looks like I have no excuse not to watch now.

[Nerdius Maximus]

Ethan_Hunt_IMF wrote:

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The funny thing about Americans is they don't realize that things like netflick or amazon or whatever is the basis for their crumbling economy.
You are ordering something that you could simply go a kilometer down the street for and then return the next day.
And why, because Americans tend to be lazy.
It your own stupidity that is causing your dollar to drop in value.

Yeah, that's great if you're renting Shrek or Iron Man 2, but say you want to rent all the seasons of any given TV show or something like that? You can't do that at a rental store. Or what about Doctor Who? Those DVD's cost thirty dollars an episode here, and you can't rent them because nobody in America knows what Doctor Who is. Yet Netflix has them all. How about independent films or documentaries? Good luck "walking a kilometer down the street" and finding something like that. Anyway, I refuse to believe that Blockbuster was supporting the economy, anyway. Good riddance to them.

[23skidoo]

Nerdius Maximus wrote:

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Yeah, that's great if you're renting Shrek or Iron Man 2, but say you want to rent all the seasons of any given TV show or something like that? You can't do that at a rental store. Or what about Doctor Who? Those DVD's cost thirty dollars an episode here, and you can't rent them because nobody in America knows what Doctor Who is. Yet Netflix has them all. How about independent films or documentaries? Good luck "walking a kilometer down the street" and finding something like that. Anyway, I refuse to believe that Blockbuster was supporting the economy, anyway. Good riddance to them.

Just remember that for every Blockbuster that dies that's at least a dozen people made unemployed and unable to support the economy while they collect benefits from the government (ie taxpayers). Every store that closes means a reduction in a city's tax base that pays for roads and sewers (so that money has to be made up in other areas such as higher property taxes once enough of them close). One shouldn't say "good riddance" to any business going under. Not these days.

That said, both comments above are valid points. I personally hate it whenever I order something from Amazon, because I would much rather give the money to a local business that provides jobs (and, from a selfish standpoint, gives me some place to go other than the grocery store). Even if it costs a bit more. And whether it's an independent operation or a Wal-Mart, it doesn't matter, it all adds up. Problem is so many "brick and mortar" businesses have decided to not bother bringing in DVD and Blu-Ray titles that I want - in many cases it's not even a case of "won't" stock the title, but that they "can't" because their distributor has its head up it's rear end. This also goes for rental places. Especially as brick-and-mortar rental operations die quickly, they're not going to risk the money on, say, a Doctor Who that might spark a dozen rentals compared with Iron Man 2 that might spark 100 rents.

So while I honestly feel guilty buying from online sources, at the same time many of the businesses did it to themselves by not providing the product I'm willing to pay for.

What I have always found weird about Netflix is that what made it so popular was the "rent by mail" option. Ignoring the more recent online streaming option, I always found this counter-intuitive in our "want it in 5 seconds" society. It was weird that a service that required people to wait a couple days for the DVDs they wanted to see would do so well, especially with regards to releases that one could just walk down the street and get in 5 minutes. And unless you have a mailbox out your front door, you still needed to make the effort to mail the discs back, which is no different from going back to the Blockbuster and dropping it in the return slot.

Now that the online version has taken off (coupled with the anti-consumerism culture that's being promoted where people aren't supposed to own anything anymore) this point is moot, but I honestly expected Netflix to crash and burn at the start because it didn't fulfill the instant gratification requirement.

Alex

[Professor Zoom]

Nerdius Maximus wrote:

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Yeah, that's great if you're renting Shrek or Iron Man 2, but say you want to rent all the seasons of any given TV show or something like that? You can't do that at a rental store. Or what about Doctor Who? Those DVD's cost thirty dollars an episode here, and you can't rent them because nobody in America knows what Doctor Who is. Yet Netflix has them all. How about independent films or documentaries? Good luck "walking a kilometer down the street" and finding something like that. Anyway, I refuse to believe that Blockbuster was supporting the economy, anyway. Good riddance to them.

I agree.

And, I would argue Amazon and Netflix supported the economy. Just as much as going to the mom and pop store. The American economy became a consumer economy, so as long as we were spending....

The housing/speculation is what did us in. No one had money. No one had credit.

And anytime new technology is introduced, a down side is, people losing jobs.

I remember when robots were introduced into car manufacturing, everyone thought it was the end of the employee. And yeah, many were replaced, but it wasn't the end.

23skidoo wrote:

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Now that the online version has taken off (coupled with the anti-consumerism culture that's being promoted where people aren't supposed to own anything anymore) this point is moot, but I honestly expected Netflix to crash and burn at the start because it didn't fulfill the instant gratification requirement.

Alex

I think it was the late fees, or lack there of, that made netflix a great deal. Blockbuster could be such creeps about it.

AND, that netflix seemed to have a great variety.

AND, it saved a car trip.

[zakkrusz]

Netflix is highly worth it if you're a person like me who has a fair number of things they want to see. If you can watch and return at least two titles in a month then I'd say you can more than get your money's worth out of the $9 you pay monthly. I usually watch about 4 DVDs a month, personally so I'd definitely say Netflix is an excellent solution for renting especially for me since they have a lot of stuff I'm into like foreign martial-arts films and Japanese animation.

[Nerdius Maximus]

23skidoo wrote:

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Just remember that for every Blockbuster that dies that's at least a dozen people made unemployed and unable to support the economy while they collect benefits from the government (ie taxpayers). Every store that closes means a reduction in a city's tax base that pays for roads and sewers (so that money has to be made up in other areas such as higher property taxes once enough of them close). One shouldn't say "good riddance" to any business going under. Not these days.

That said, both comments above are valid points. I personally hate it whenever I order something from Amazon, because I would much rather give the money to a local business that provides jobs (and, from a selfish standpoint, gives me some place to go other than the grocery store). Even if it costs a bit more. And whether it's an independent operation or a Wal-Mart, it doesn't matter, it all adds up. Problem is so many "brick and mortar" businesses have decided to not bother bringing in DVD and Blu-Ray titles that I want - in many cases it's not even a case of "won't" stock the title, but that they "can't" because their distributor has its head up it's rear end. This also goes for rental places. Especially as brick-and-mortar rental operations die quickly, they're not going to risk the money on, say, a Doctor Who that might spark a dozen rentals compared with Iron Man 2 that might spark 100 rents.

So while I honestly feel guilty buying from online sources, at the same time many of the businesses did it to themselves by not providing the product I'm willing to pay for.

What I have always found weird about Netflix is that what made it so popular was the "rent by mail" option. Ignoring the more recent online streaming option, I always found this counter-intuitive in our "want it in 5 seconds" society. It was weird that a service that required people to wait a couple days for the DVDs they wanted to see would do so well, especially with regards to releases that one could just walk down the street and get in 5 minutes. And unless you have a mailbox out your front door, you still needed to make the effort to mail the discs back, which is no different from going back to the Blockbuster and dropping it in the return slot.

Now that the online version has taken off (coupled with the anti-consumerism culture that's being promoted where people aren't supposed to own anything anymore) this point is moot, but I honestly expected Netflix to crash and burn at the start because it didn't fulfill the instant gratification requirement.

Alex

Blockbuster really has nothing that I want to see. My wife works for the cable company and we get all the on demand stuff for free, so if I want to see some mainstream new release, I watch it on there.
I like obscure old horror movies, and I watch alot of documentaries, and you just can't get either of those in a rental store. So I give my business to the company who has what I want, and that company is netflix. There is no local business that provides this service.

[Immolatus]

I had blockbuster for a while and their service went to crap. I finally gave them up and going back to netflix

[Starbreaker]

I tried Blockbuster for a month and it took about a week for a new movie to come in, and then the story nearby closed down, so it was pointless to keep.

[Garak]

I got a 3 month gift subscription for NEtflix for my bday, so hooked it up through my Xbox.

The content up here in Canada is god awful. Nothing is availiable. Are we going to be getting more content or is that more of a "changing Canadian law" kind of thing?

The one saving grace is that Red Dwarf is availiable.

[PsychoPere]

A streaming-only plan is now officially an option at $7.99 per month, while plans including DVDs are receiving a price increase.

[bigdaddy]

Harvey wrote:

---

Netflix is great, but the fact that they're operating without any real competition is troubling. I can't say I ever planned on renting Harmony Korine's TRASH HUMPERS, but Netflix's recent decision to not carry the title doesn't have the grandest of implications. What else will Netflix choose not to carry in the future, now that they've supplanted Blockbuster as the company with a near-complete monopoly on the home video rental market?

This is a real big problem.

When it seemed Blockbuster would get their shit together Netflix lowed the prices a buck on their plans, now that's going back up. What's to stop that from being a trend? Nothing really until people start ditching, but people won't because Netflix is the only thing around.

[Scout101]

Funny that this page questions whether having Blockbuster dying is a good thing, and ends with the announcement that Netflix is raising their prices on their dvd packages.

Less entertained, personally, because I just changed from Blockbuster to Netflix, and one of the attractive features was that they were a couple bucks a month cheaper. I've had this account for a month (including the 2 week free trial, so only even made 1 payment, and it's still valid), and they're raising the price on me. At least Blockbuster rented blu-ray as part of the same priced plan, Netflix wants even more if I want those, so wondering if this was such a good idea now, or whether I should can both of these ideas and just go with Redbox...

[Sparky]

Garak wrote:

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I got a 3 month gift subscription for NEtflix for my bday, so hooked it up through my Xbox.

The content up here in Canada is god awful. Nothing is availiable. Are we going to be getting more content or is that more of a "changing Canadian law" kind of thing?

The one saving grace is that Red Dwarf is availiable.

It all depends on what you are looking for with the service. I have no problem finding a title that I want to watch. I have found so many TV Shows, Movies and Documentaries that keep me entertained for a long time. Even with the limited selection it is still well worth the low monthly fee. It would cost me far more per month on my cable bill to add channels that would at best, show a quarter of what I want to watch on Netflix. Even if it was up to 50% or 75% I am still saddled with the channels' schedules. The great thing about Netflix is that it is instant, and available where I want. TV, Computer, iPhone, iPad.

I do agree that it can be very frustrating almost to the point of anger, when a title is available in the US and not up here though. I just hope that the disparity between the available content will grow smaller.