You may have heard about the uproar — or at least the grumbling — about Netflix splitting out their movie streaming service and their flagship physical movie rental service, effectively raising the price 60% for those who want both. What was a $9.99/month service (unlimited streaming plus physical delivery one at a time) will now be $7.99/month apiece for new customers. (Current customers get until September 1st, 2011, to brace themselves.)
For the customers that greatly prefer one or the other, it's a win, because the price is now $2/month less for each service. For those who like both … well, yeah, it will be more expensive. No sugar-coating the math there.
But let's put this in perspective
If a movie night is your idea of a nice date with your significant other or spouse, then sixteen bucks is literally just the price of admission these days. Then you have to get out there: probably another few bucks. Plus sit through advertisements and pleas for money. Plus endure the lure of concessions, or else pony up another $5 to $10 each.
Oh? You want to do this more than once a month? Multiply that number by the number of times that you want to do it per month.
Or … pay $16 per month, and choose not only from the newest DVD releases, but also from a wide array of obscure stuff, as fast as you can get through them. If you watch more than one movie a month, you've probably more than broken even, because you don't need to drive very far to get to your living room or basement 🙂 and you can eat (or drink!) whatever the heck you want while you're watching!
It's a cheap luxury
If you're looking to keep a tight rein on your spending, a Netflix subscription isn't a budget buster. Even if you get rid of your high-speed Internet connection, you can still get the physical DVD service for less than 30 cents a day. It's an incredible choice. Whereas you might have had 500 channels and nothing good on, surely there's something to suit your fancy from over a hundred thousand titles?
Personally, I like to own the movies I watch, but I have a pretty limited taste as far as movies go. If I were more of a movie fanatic, I'd love picking and choosing my next movie. There's more out there than any one person could care to watch.
As far as variety for the buck goes, it's really good. That's why I still think that it's cheap for what you get.
I rarely rent movies, but it is a choice. I go to the movies about once a month. I bought group discount tickets for $6 each versus $10 retail price. If renting movies is a important part of your entertainment budget, make changes elsewhere.
I really think that this price increase was an inevitable thing, there was no way that the movie industry was going to continue to sell their content so cheaply. Not to be a downer, but I predict another price increase down the line too.
That said, I have been on the “just streaming” netflix plan for about a year now, I kept forgetting to return the movies so it just made more sense to only pay for the streaming option.
I wish I could make the same comparison here in Canada…the Netflix we get here is a watered-down version of what’s available in the U.S.
That being said, I agree with your point about it still being cheap…you’re still streaming a ton of content for next to nothing.
I don’t use Netflix but agree it’s still a good deal. Funny about people get so upset about something like this.
i agree with you. i’m not canceling my subscription any time soon.
I agree with this post. Netflix is still relatively cheap, especially compared to going out to a movie (last movie I saw was $10 for one ticket!). Entertainment is important to us, though, and so I think people will be willing to pay the difference.
I don’t use Netflix either, but if I cut my cable and used this instead, I wouldn’t complain about the price. I always wonder why people buy movies as you say you do. Do you like to watch them over and over? I almost never watch a movie more than twice, and most of the time it is only once.
We have Netflix here, and I’m debating what to do. I mostly use streaming, since I haven’t had the patience/planning to deal with DVDs. However, the selection with DVDs is more to my liking, so maybe I’ll give it a try. If you get 4 or 5 movies a month, it’s worth it – at least for me. I could get $1 movies from a machine, but that involves the time spent to buy/return. Much better to do very little work as required by Netflix.
I hate to see price increases anywhere, though I understand business and profit well. Still…darn!
We hardly stream at all, so we’ll probably just do the DVD thing. In that case, we will save money from our previous plan. Woohoo! Hope my husband is on board…
Netflix is NOT “cheap”! Why compare with a night out at the movies? Compare with Redbox – $1 per day per movie.
I agree that it’s still cheap but I think the problem was throwing such as drastic price raise on their members so quickly. Netflix is in for some trouble with a few competitors coming out such as Vudu from Walmart and then of course Amazon and iTunes getting more into the game. The Netflix streaming is next to worthless anymore, it’s like digging through the bargain bin.