Monday, November 22, 2010

Netflix Raises Prices and Adds Streaming Only Plan

Netflix Logo

Today Netflix finally announced their long-speculated streaming-only plan.  The bigger news however is the fact that they basically raised the price for all plans by a dollar per month.  That may not seem like much, but over time it makes the value proposition of Netflix go down for me.

I’m currently using the 1 DVD out at at time unlimited plus Blu-ray which is $10.99 per month.  The increase takes it to $11.99.  I use the streaming service sparingly to say the least and opt for an occasional Blu-ray as my mail-to-home movie.  Even with the 1 movie a month plan I’m busy enough I’ll sometimes not even rent more than one movie a month.  Another problem for me is the new release delay that Netflix is now saddled with – the value of their new releases is lower than the value of the much maligned Blockbuster new releases. 

A streaming-only plan was needed for those that don’t care much about the picture quality of their movies, but I was hoping for a lower price for that version given the much lower list of available movies and lower PQ.  Here’s the new pricing schedule – add $2.00 for the Blu-ray option:

NetflixPricingChange

If you’re like me and already have a Netflix subscription, your plan will update to the new rate starting with the next billing period OR after January 2, 2011.  I’m guessing that 1/2/2011 date is for those that put their Netflix account on a “vacation” between now and then and therefore delaying their billing date.

Netflix Price Increase

It will be interesting to see how their subscriber number change from this.  Netflix is the big guy these days so they’ll probably do fine, but my happiness with them just dropped about a dollar a month…

via Netflix Blog