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A million people quit Netflix since yesterday's price hike
By Maura HehirSeptember 16th, 2011, 1:00 pmComments (17)
Since Netflix sent out that cursed email about two months ago warning us that their DVD and streaming service would cost $7.99 each instead of $9.99 in total for both beginning on September 15th, I'd been vigilantly waiting for the 14th to roll around so that I could unsubscribe completely. "It's an outrage!" I'd tell anyone who would listen. "I am not supporting a company that does not support my need to watch all the TV and movies I want for less than ten dollars!"
That's not entirely true -- we all know that a Netflix-less life is not really worth living. I just quit to share an account with my roommate, as I suspect most of the million people who dropped their Netflix accounts this week are also doing. (It was recently cleared up that all Netflix accounts allow for multiple simultaneous streams.) And although the number of people who canceled their subscriptions was more severe than Netflix had anticipated, and although their stock has now dropped 19% (it closed yesterday at $169.25; in July it peaked at $304.79), and although I hate to admit it because I'm the kind of person who saves their pennies in pasta jars and then takes them to the Coinstar at the supermarket before rent is due... Netflix is still not a bad deal.
In July, CEO Reed Hastings said in an open letter that with the price increase Netflix "will take the increased revenue and mostly spend it on more streaming content" because that's where future of the company is headed. This remains to be seen, though. As of right now, it seems they're only going backwards: in March there will be no more Starz programming since the two companies couldn't come to terms on a new contract. But maybe they'll add something better, like AMC, or TCM, or TBS. As long as they don't remove A&E's "Heavy" any time soon (Yes, I'm into reality shows about morbidly obese people. No, I don't want to talk about it.), everything will be okay.
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Commentarium (17 Comments)
How dare Netflix try to charge me for my entertainment? I should not have to pay a cent to be entertained for hundreds of hours a year -- nor should I have to be exposed to advertisements, which I don't like. I should get everything I want for free!!!
Sounds about right to me.
yup nothing wrong with that statement
I don't have a problem with paying for entertainment, but I refuse to pay AND have to watch commercials. So I don't have cable. Period
The author's claim to miserliness is undermined by the fact that she uses Coinstar, which takes an 8% cut from the coins it wraps. If she was truly closefisted, she'd wrap her coins herself.
It's closer to 10%. 9 point something last time I went. However you can avoid that by having them give it to you on a gift card to spend elsewhere, or donate the money to charity.
I was actually stoked about the price change. I never used the DVD service anyway, so I'm actually saving two bucks a month. If I want a DVD, I want it right now...I don't want to wait for the (near bankrupt) postal service to deliver it.
And what Netflix should do is lobby for a super premium service (around 25-30 bucks a month) which offers new releases on the same day as the DVD release. They could even limit views of "first run" movies so as to limit competition with DVD sales. I'd also take a pay-per-view service that's competitively priced. Cable companies charge 6 bucks...that's just t00 much. Get it down to 2 or 3 dollars, and I'm on board.
While I agree with you, I have no idea what the fiscal solvency of the postal service has to do with anything.
Also, if Netflix actually does end up falling out of favor, I wish they would've done it before kicking the shit out of all the nearby video rental stores.
The streaming service in my area is absolute horseshit (480 max...re-buffers regularly), yet the DVDs I would get were always smudgy pieces of garbage. Blu-rays were almost always OK, but the selection at the time was dismal. I'll read a book instead.
I cancelled after hearing about Starz, and after noticing that months would pass with no (good) watch instantly items being added.
Once Carl Sagan's cosmos was no longer available to watch instant, that was the last straw. Was the thing I watched most often on there. =)
I hate that they promote new streaming movies.. Honestly I check their recently added streaming and there has been maybe 1 or 2 movies added in like three weeks. Not to mention the movies added are the likes of.. "hobo with a shotgun" I'm all about indies but they need to be honest. I have hbo go through my mom god bless her for paying for atnt u verse and at first hbo go was a Netflix knock off but one thing I give hbo go is they add streaming movies it seems every other day and it is mostly stuff you would watch. And you get to sometimes watch a week ahead episode of true blood or game of thrones.
@ spinster, I think you missed the point.
The moral of the story is Netflix is charging more ,overall, without providing better services. It was a great buy when it ~$10/ month; now for both ,it is a little less, but without a larger DVD selection and diminished streaming services due to the impending cessation of their contract with Stars. So now it seems you get less than what is offered by other services. This makes me tempted to try torrents or illegally downloading tv shows and movies.
You are right about the moral of the story, but it takes away from the analogies effectiveness when it is incorrect...trying to showcase how cheap you are by saying you use a coin service that takes 10% of the total off the top doesn't really work, since if you were really cheap, you would just roll them yourself and turn them in, which is free.
Well, it was nice while it lasted.
Hopefully the MPAA will see what happens when they make it difficult for a legit company like netflix to offer movies, as all those people resort to thepiratebay
i still don't get it. Stars shot down a multimillion dollar deal so as to not shoot itself in the foot by giving its movies to netflix, whose to say that other license-holders won't follow suit? Netflix is slowly on the decline..