Update: I write these posts ahead of time and within 12 hours of finishing this post Netflix came out with some big news. Basically everything I wrote is still the same but the CEO of Netflix did admit that he did not communicate well and he was arrigant. Of course the big news was that they are splitting into two companies Qwikster for DVD by mail and Netflix for Movie streaming. Good idea or bad idea what is your opinion? Check out the CEO's post on the Netflix Blog.
The new Netflix prices has caused a lot of controversy and I recently read an article from theWashington Post Horror Show: Netflix Losing More Customers then Expected about the mass exodus out of Netflix. For those of you that don't know starting on September 1st Netflix increased their price of subscription from about $10/month to $16/month. After the announcement many people left Netflix and apparently this took Netflix by suprise. While Netflix was caught off guard by the mass exodus they don't seem to care. Their reasoning is that with the higher prices even the fewer subscribers they will still the same amount of money. While this seems like a stupid business model to me I guess it works.
It appears Netflix says what they did wrong was not rasing the price but not explaining their new price structure better. Netflix offers two services. DVD by mail and streaming movies to your computer, TV, or IPad. Under the old pricing structure you paid the $10 for both services but now they are going to charge $8 for each or $16 for both. Netflix is saying that people are canceling both services because they didn't know they could keep one or the other. Which everyone I talked to had known and didn't seem confusing to the people I know. But thats the story they are stiking too.
The big question is what services are people going to keep if any? The few people I talked to the concensus seemed to be keep the DVD by mail because that has the larger selection. But according to Netflix that is no longer going to be their focus. They want to focus on their streaming product which they see as the way of the future. This I found surprising since the big complaint I have heard all along was that there are not enough selection on their streaming services which is going to get worse when Starz ends their contract with them the begining of next year. Most of Netflix newer movies are ones that are available of Starz and with them pulling out they will lose a large part of their selection.
What Netflix is counting on is their selection TV shows that stream, and they have added many new TV shows to their streaming content. I guess since I am a movie person and not a TV person the TV content never had much appeal to me. But what they say is true why wait week to week when you can watch full seasons all at once. I know many people that watch huge blocks of TV shows that way. In this respect I see the appeal of the streaming service. You can watch a whole season fairly quickly.
So, my question is this: What are people out there doing? Are you watching more movies or TV on Netflix Streaming? If you had Netflix did you cancel one or both of their services? If you canceled your services how do you plan on renting movies?
I had a thought of having a forum for Netflix streaming where people can give their suggestions on what to watch since one of the hardest things to do is find the small films on streaming that are worth watching. But that might not be worth it at this time.
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