I’ve been a Netflix customer since 1997, during the rise of DVD, becoming the de facto media replacement of VHS. I thought the idea of mailing the DVD direct to my door was brilliant. Those red envelopes are iconic! As an early adopter, I was even awarded with free T-Shirts. Netflix was one reason why I stopped going to Blockbuster. They were also the reason why I dropped my satellite dish subscription. Now, they’re fully committed to streaming videos, so naturally I’m on-board, as well. They’re always innovative with their technology and business model.
The latest announcement by Netflix to raise prices doesn’t surprise me. It sucks that we, the consumers, have to foot the bill because it costs a great deal of money to acquire content from the movie/television studios. The motion picture business is a cutthroat and greedy market.
At the end of the day, Netflix needs to make more profit to keep the investors1 happy. Let’s hope Netflix doesn’t lose too many customers that may force them to cut costs – mainly in content.
Despite of this, I’ll continue to use Netflix. I’m just a fan and loyal customer. Now, I have to determine if I need to rent DVDs from them. Maybe the $1 Redbox rental once or twice a month will be sufficient. If not, then I’ll just bite the bullet and contribute more to Netflix’ coffers.
Photo Credit: Kill Taupe
- By the way, I’m not a Netflix shareholder. [↩]
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hi Rudy,
I’ve been with NetFlix a long time (and have always recommended them), but have never gotten a t-shirt from them… 🙁
We finally took the plunge about three months ago and got a new blueray play that could stream (since streaming was included free on our account). We haven’t used it much, since most movies seem to still only be on dvd. And now I find out it’s going to be $8 a month! What timing! I’m not sure what we’ll do. Steve
Just for the record, before the new pricing kicks in at the beginning of September, I dropped streaming, and am just going with the 2 DVD’s a month. We didn’t find many movies that could be streamed, so we’re going back to the strictly “old school” method of getting dvds via the mail.
Steve
I recently got something in the mail about a class action suit. I wonder what is all about.
And one more thing, I recently tried out hulu+, now that was a complete waste of money and not a great variety, plus all the adds.