Netflix announced today that it will do away with any plan that offers both DVD rentals and unlimited streaming, starting in September. To get both services, customers will have to pay $7.99 for an unlimited streaming plan, and at least another $7.99 for the least expensive DVD rental plan. That means both services will now cost subscribers $15.98 per month, a significant increase from the $9.99 they have been paying for the same service.
Customers will now be able to subscribe to DVD-only plans, which will start at $7.99 per month for the one DVD at-a-time option, or $11.99 per month for two DVDs at-a-time plan, Netflix announced. “These plans offer our lowest prices ever for unlimited DVDs,” writes Jessie Becker on the Netflix blog. He adds: “By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members.”
Unlimited streaming plans, which also cost $7.99 per month, will remain the same.
Netflix is trying desperately hard to sell this change as a win for its customers. According to Becker, the company did not anticipate that many users would want to keep receiving physical DVDs after they announced the $7.99 unlimited streaming plan last November. So, rather than have DVD-only plans, they simply made the DVD option a $2 add-on to the unlimited streaming service.
Now, however, they believe that DVDs by mail has a “long life” ahead of it, so “treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs.” This, says Becker, is why they made the changes. They’ve even started a whole new “separate and distinct management team” that will be “solely focused on DVDs by mail,” Becker says.
Needless to say, Netflix users aren’t happy — or, at least, the frothy hoard that is commenting on the Netflix blog announcement isn’t.
“This is a horrible deal for current customers,” says commenter Todd Hayward. “You’re going to be losing a lot of business with this decision.”
What do you think of the change? Does this affect whether you’ll keep your Netflix subscription? Let us know in the comments.
ddos
This is rudicilous I already have the 3 DVDs and unlimited streaming. I use to only have the 9.99$ plan but I found out that you can't stream Netflix on two devices at a time with that plan, so I had to upgrade because 4 people at my house stream all the time through iPods and 2 xbox's and now there going to raise the price? How ridiculous they dont even have that good of a selection I like to watch anime and the top 4 animes on there are not even in English bleach, naruto, inuyasha and death note. Were canceling Netflix now
@Andre Dyer – That’s definitely the quote to remember. But the key point here, if you ask me, is the doesn’t “make financial sense” bit. Essentially, this means that users didn’t make the switch to streaming in the way Netflix expected. They were losing money on the DVD subscriptions, and they can simply no longer afford to keep the price as low as they had it. In other words, Netflix gambled and lost.
That’s terrible. At least one DVD that I’ve received was damaged, and I had to send it back to get another one… It won’t be long before there is a downgrade and / or a cancellation of Netflix at my house. What were they thinking? that they want to go out of business ??? What then, do I do with my new Roku box?
I’m Cancelling!
What this is actually saying:
“Dear customers,
Because 90% of our contracts are going to be renegotiated in 2012, we know that many of the companies that provide us content are going to ask for ten times more then what we currently pay to house their product. In addition, we now have mass amounts of competition from companies that have billions of dollars more cash on hand so they can bury us in bidding wars. We predict that Hulu will be acquired by a tech giant which will dominate the world of streaming (and if Amazon acquires them, we’re really screwed) and so to appease our shareholders, we will need raise our rates by 400% in 2013 so we don’t want to shock our customers when it’s $35.00 a month for one DVD and limited movie streaming.
Please don’t make us go the way of Blockbuster.
Sincerely,
Netflix.”
At the previous cost, I had no problems being a subscriber to Netflix (streaming + dvd + 1 blu-ray).
With the price hike, screw it. I don't use it enough to justify the cost anymore. I'd rather find an alternative, and I truely believe the market for streaming only service is ripe for the taking.
I recently subscribed to Netflix. I was a Blockbuster Online subscriber for many years; Blockbuster’s unlimited in-store exchanges and free movie a month coupon gave it an edge over Netflix. Blockbuster’s bankruptcy forced many of their stores to close including the 2 closest to me, so the unlimited store exchange was no longer as convenient, I thought to give Netflix a try Since Netflix offered unlimited streaming as well as DVD delivery. Well, Netflix is more expensive than Blockbuster, Netflix charges you $2 a month more for Blu-ray while Blockbuster is no extra charge, and the selection of titles for streaming is very limited with Netflix. I found a Blockbuster store close to a regular place I travel so I was thinking of cancelling Netflix. Now, with them jacking up their prices, I am certainly cancelling and going back to Blockbuster. I will not miss the streaming and will save a few bucks a month even if I just kept the Netflix DVD only plan.
Lol @ Chris Johnson. @ Andrew Couts: agreed. Additionally, Netflix transition into streaming would have been successful if we actually had more streaming selections. The streaming selections are very limited, my queue (DVD vs Instant) says it all, large disparity btwn them. It’s a really bad gamble!
This price hike is obnoxious, but $15 for all-you-can stream and one DVD out at a time is still nowhere near as obnoxious as basic cable. (And for those complaining about the content on Netflix streaming, tell me TNT and Comedy Central reruns are any better.) My bet: Netflix will launch a new ad-supported streaming option at the old price, and this is just a ploy to make swallowing the ads go down a little better. Hulu Plus is already there.
Cancelling both, netflix will lose a lot of people with this greedy move, I had the 9.99 plan. I streamed some but the streaming selection is horrible and low quality. And with only getting 1 disc out at a time for 8 bucks ill come out about the same going a half mile down the road to the redbox and I won't have to wait a couple of days for the movie to come.
Netflix was already close to the "too expensive for what you get" line, and this move justmoved them WAY passed them.
Dumb move Netflix
they are trying to grandfather people away from DVD to Netflix streaming!!!! Clever………its cheaper to stream than to send out copies of original DVD. Plus Streaming makes piracy difficult!!!
http://mythoughtsontechnologyandjamaica.blogspot.com/2011/04/netflix-death-of-blu-ray-rise-of.html
Im staying myself. Personally it’s still cheaper than the basic service of satellite with direct tv with one of the movie packages. The price hike does suck, but there really aren’t to many alternatives and it still beats paying for cable and having nothing on.
I’m staying with Netflix