So, now that Netflix is raising its prices 60%

[Cliffmeister2000]

If you have Netflix, what are you going to do?

I have had Netflix for years, and I am very disappointed. Netflix has raised their price for my plan (2 DVDs at a time) by $2 twice in the last 2 years. That means the total price has more than doubled in less than 24 months.

The wife and I have talked about it, and the facts are:

We don't watch as much TV or movies as we used to.

The content on the streaming is poor and limited.

Even so, there is not a real competitor for Netflix out there.

So, we are going to cut our service to one DVD at a time, no streaming. $7.99 plus tax. much better than $19.98 plus tax.

If we watched a bunch of stuff, or had kids at home, the $19.98 is still a great price. Just not a great price for us.

Netflix competitors, where are you?

[GeoDrop]

We've had netlflix for the last year... and had it previously several years ago. We don't do the streaming option, so this new price change saves us $2/month. We only do the basic 1 dvd out at a time. We typically watch one a week, which works out to $2 each.

Competitor? Redbox.... but you are limited to what they have in the box.

Remember blockbuster days of $3-$5 for a DVD?

[rainjer]

Here is the email I received.

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $7.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

I do not think the pricing is out of line. I get 4-6 DVD's a month. I usually have them for 2-3 days. If you compare that to Red Box @ $1 per day it would be $8 to $18 a month. We also stream 3-4 movies a week. We have 3 TV we can watch the streaming on and there are day when both of my kids are watching a movie at the same time on 2 different TV's.

I have looked at other streaming services and none of them have the selection as Netflix.

Jeremy

[glenpinpat]

we have had netflix for over 1yr. also watch about 2 movies a week, less in summer than winter. we figured it out to about 1.00/movie so well worth the 7.99. Like the fact that I can watch anytime and stop if something comes up and continue watching later. patrick

[Cliffmeister2000]

I agree the new price is better than running to the store, but a 100% increase in 2 years seems unreasonable to me. I guess I am in the minority.

[eaglesdare]

no i don't think you are in the minority. we use it under my daughters plan. but i think she is getting ready to get rid of one. i would get rid of the streaming if i had to. the selection is limited. now if they would really open up that live streaming i could see that one.

i think anything is better than paying what sat and cable cost.

[Cliffmeister2000]

I have cable too, but don't use it much. The wife loves HGTV I love the scifi channel. Still, money is money, and I need to cut back again.

[urban5]

Well you know it wasn't that long ago that netflix tested the water of doing away with the DVD's all together and just putting everything on streaming online video.

A ton of people through a hissy fit, and they decided not to do it.

The thing is, it was a way for them to recover some of the risk of sending DVD's out, and the massive upswing in bandwidth that netflix started receiving. There is no telling how much it costs them to run instant online video.

Personally I guess I am different than you guys and gals. I can't be bothered with developing DVD ques, and trying to remember to check my mail much less send something back. That's right, I don't even check my mail on a regular basis. Maybe once every couple of weeks.

For my family having movies or tv shows at your finger tips is more important. I also think it is that way for most young families. So the smart thing was to split it. Great thing about it though, they are going to add more content to the online streaming. Not that there wasn't already thousands of titles online.

But hey to each their own

[Cliffmeister2000]

My wife is getting ready to have back surgery, and will be housebound for a few weeks, then very limited for 4 - 6 weeks after that. I asked her what she wanted, streaming video or DVDs. She said she wanted a Kindle.

[Lizbeth]

A few (?) months ago the price was raised because so many people were watching streaming video the bandwidth cost for them was skyrocketing.

That made me very unhappy because I can't use the streaming videos because they are not close captioned. Now my price is going down and I don't have to pay for bandwidth I'm not using. We get three videos at a time but use the service much more in the winter than summer, I should probably reduce it to one or two for the summertime. Going to the theater here is 11.00.

[Larry C]

My wife is getting ready to have back surgery, and will be housebound for a few weeks, then very limited for 4 - 6 weeks after that. I asked her what she wanted, streaming video or DVDs. She said she wanted a Kindle.

Cliffmeister:
I think she's on the right track. I bought my wife a Kindle for Christmas. She loves it. I bought the one with 3G (no charge) so she can download anytime. anywhere.
You can purchase books if you want the latest, but there are so many "free" books available that you really don't have to buy more than the Kindle itself. It's probably better for the brain than watching TV or movies

$.02

Larry C

[asianflava]

The classic business model; run your competitors to bankruptcy then raise your prices when you're the last one standing. Blockbuster used to have mail service, but I heard it was slow. I'm kinda annoyed by their increases, but there isn't a competitor like it anymore you don't have a choice.

I've been using the streaming service, but the selection isn't the best. I do watch things that I normally wouldn't, that makes for some nice finds.

We scaled back to 1 DVD, when the DVD comes in it will sit until the weekend. If it doesn't get watched, then it will sit until the next. We had a disc for probably 2 or 3 months until we finally watched it. I have noticed that they throttle you back when you send them back too fast.

[oregonguy]

We're going to just keep the instant streaming side. It's not worth $16/month for us...but I can still justify $10, and we use the streaming side way way more often than the discs.

[urban5]

That made me very unhappy because I can't use the streaming videos because they are not close captioned.

I am embarrassed to say I had not even noticed that. Have you tried emailing them about it, because I know there are other services that are closed caption.

It is also important to keep in mind netflix is not the only game in town. There are others trying to compete, like Hulu, and Amazon's service, but netflix is still the best deal.

[D.J.]

Don't tell anyone that I gave you these .

http://www.watchthisfree.com/movies/

http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/

You have to become a member for things to work well . The second one is fairly new to me but I have been using the first one for over a year now . You have to be able to deal with the pop-ups . The second one seems to work very well for me . The first one wants you to sign up for extra video players . You have to learn how to navigate but I have watched many movies that I haven't seen in years . Like my favorite Brando movie , tea house of the August moon .