Netflix shoots itself in the foot... aka no more free streaming

[J. Allen]

I use the Greasemonkey extension. It works by forcing the old UI. They make it for Firefox [Link] and Chrome [Link].

[Awesome Possum]

I've been planning on going to all streaming anyway. The discs just set by my tv for months.

[Campe98]

Interesting... http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/12/ne...-and-counting/

I've already cancelled my disc subscription sticking only with streaming. In all honesty, I barely use the discs anyway. I've had disc 2 of Caprica for about 6 weeks anyway without watching it. I am a little annoyed though. I can understand a slight price increase, but I think it would be wiser to give a discount to customers who use both services. But, with 4100 negative comments already, maybe Netflix will realize quickly how poor of a decision it is.

[Robert Maxwell]

Awesome Possum wrote:

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I've been planning on going to all streaming anyway. The discs just set by my tv for months.

Streaming is always the way to go, as long as it's not in a public park.

[nevermore]

Kestra wrote:

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No, it's not going away! I'm just complaining.

I didn't see a thread about this, so apologies if there already is one. I got an email from Netflix today saying that they're dividing up unlimited streaming and unlimited DVD plans. So if I want to keep what I have now, I go from $9.99 to $15.98 a month. That's a steep jump for me, considering I've been trying to economize a bit.

I'm torn now. I like getting the DVDs, especially since I never go to the movies anymore. On the other hand, I definitely haven't been renting as many movies and I've been streaming a lot. I'm thinking about just going with unlimited streaming which is $7.99/month but I'm considering just cancelling altogether.

Anyone else hit with a change? Any decisions?

I think I'll stick with the same price by going down to 2 disks from 3 (sort of like when I went from 4 to 3 at the last price hike), but...

JoeZhang wrote:

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they actually wanted to go all streaming but there are still many people who want physical discs.

...there are an enormous number of things that are not available on streaming (yet), so if they were to do that (or, if I were to do it for them) my selection would be severely curtailed to the point where it would open a major opportunity for someone else to come along and fill the gap. $20 a month to have access to pretty much everything ever released on DVD is worth it to me, whereas $8 a month for a very limited selection of streaming items is not, and they're nowhere near turning that corner on their streaming selection.

[LitmusDragon]

I read this article recently which sheds some light on the situation. Apparently studios are raising their licensing fees due to the unexpected success of online streaming, which in turn is raising Netflix's streaming pricing model (and, it's only expected to get worse).

Just give me my 2 DVDs a week and I'll be happy.

[Harvey]

One can assume that streaming is taking away from the profit potential of television, which is actually a huge source of income for movie studios. Studios are only responding accordingly. Unfortunately, that only means I'll have to spend more money in the long run.

[Scout101]

Right, it's not really a decision to go towards streaming or DVD like they are the same thing. The selection for streaming is way behind, and not only do a ton of older titles not show up, there's a long delay before NEW things show up for streaming too.

Pretty sure this results in Netflix getting LESS of my money, probably none of it. I like the streaming, but don't use it enough to justify the $20/month they want to raise my bill to. And at that point, way cheaper to go get a couple movies from Redbox than keep half the Netflix service at full price.

On top of that, Netflix gives you the new releases a month AFTER they come out. Presumably this was to get more streaming options, but since they separated the services (from a billing standpoint, anyway), why would I want to sacrifice things I'm paying for to benefit the OTHER plan that I'm not a part of?

[Captain Craig]

LitmusDragon wrote:

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I read this article recently which sheds some light on the situation. Apparently studios are raising their licensing fees due to the unexpected success of online streaming, which in turn is raising Netflix's streaming pricing model (and, it's only expected to get worse).

Just give me my 2 DVDs a week and I'll be happy.

Unexpected success??

Get it now vs 2 days in the mail? How is that a surprise?
Stream it via Netflix vs buy "tv 'x' set" that you only might like?

Unexpected?

[Brolan]

LitmusDragon wrote:

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I read this article recently which sheds some light on the situation. Apparently studios are raising their licensing fees due to the unexpected success of online streaming, which in turn is raising Netflix's streaming pricing model (and, it's only expected to get worse).

Just give me my 2 DVDs a week and I'll be happy.

Makes me wonder why studios don't do their own streaming? Cut out the middleman and get all the money for themselves.

[Robert Maxwell]

Brolan wrote:

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Makes me wonder why studios don't do their own streaming? Cut out the middleman and get all the money for themselves.

They don't understand technology? I mean, techy stuff is hard.

[God Magnus]

I understand why some folks would be cheesed off about this. If I were on one of the $7.99 plans I'd be pretty upset too.

I'm currently on the 2 disc unlimited, unlimited streaming plan. For the longest time it's been about $15 (it went up $1 last year). For me, adding another $5 is not a huge deal, mostly because I go through at least 24 discs or so a month easily and use the streaming too. However, I realize that may not be the case for most folks and my usage may be unusual.

[Temis the Vorta]

My current plan (2x DVDs plus streaming) is $15/month. I just dumped streaming and switched to $12/month - thanks, Netflix, for letting me opt out of a service I never used anyway and giving me a nice 20% savings!

But I can't see how it's to Netflix' advantage to cater to cheapskates like me and reward them for consuming less. Customers should be rewarded for spending and consuming more. That's how you stay in business, you big sillies! The person (me) that Netflix is making 20% less from is happy. The other people (everyone else) that Netflix might be making more from is incensed. Netflix might want to consider which type of person they want to keep happy, and keep as their customers.

The last company that made the mistake of making a product that appeals to cheapskates like me was Saturn. Twenty years later, I still have the first car I ever bought from them and they're out of business. I can always tell when a company is fucking up if I'm happy to be their customer. Suckers.

[Temis the Vorta]

Yay! I just got a 20% price discount by dumping streaming, which I never use anyway. But Netflix is not very smart to incentivize customers to consume less and pay less, especially since them sending me DVDs costs more to Neflix than if they somehow convinced me to opt for streaming.

And that's what they really should be doing - making streaming more attractive to the die-hard DVD crowd. The first step is making sure their streaming options are on par with their DVD options, which I know must be a monumental hurdle (especially since cable and movie studios are far more threatened by streaming and will throw up more obstacles). But as long as I can get any kind of obscure shit I like on DVD but not streaming, I'm sticking with DVD. The deep library, not just new releases, is what I value in Netflix.

[RoJoHen]

I think the reason I prefer streaming is because I very rarely watch movies; most of my Netflix use is from watching TV shows. It's much more convenient to stream the next episode of a TV series than to have to wait for the next disc to arrive before you can continue.