netflix

[ljplicease]

I think I must be the only one in America who doesn't think Netflix is Evil Incarnate for raising the prices. I actually canceled my disc subscription before they anounced they were raising their prices, because my DVD queue emptied. I am thinking of canceling the streaming too, because I don't watch it that much anymore, but not because of a sense of entitlement. I think most people in the middle class that can afford the old price can probably afford the new price. I do think Netflix was disingenuous when they announced the price hike by selling it as a price cut. I told one of our neighbours that we didn't have cable during the huricane and he pointed out to me that it's only $20/month extra since I have cable Internet, but I think that is outrageous since the only thing that I would be likely to watch is PBS (If the $20/month was going to PBS I would gladly pay, btw-). I realize I am in the minority here, and when Lena moves down here next year we will probably upgrade our package to get cable TV. The latest hubub with Netflix seems to be due to the fact that you have to upgrade your account if you want to view multiple streams at once. I was personally surprised that this had been free up until now. You as an individual aren't going to be watching multiple streams at once, you as an individual are going to be sharing your account with other individuals, and you ought to pay for this.

Comments

[drkryl.livejournal.com]

why do I have to pay extra if I want to watch something in the living room while E. watches something else on her iPad in the bedroom? Is it unlimited streaming or not? If not, let me pay per stream, instead of tying the number of streams to number of DVDs I can get at a time. The way they change terms of service and prices is a marketing disaster.

[plicease]

I agree they haven't handled it well and that it is going to hurt them.

I've always interpreted unlimited streaming to be serial rather than parallel.
You can't post your netflix credentials on facebook and say "go ahead, unlimited streaming!" Admittedly I have never looked that closely at the terms of service.

[drkryl.livejournal.com]

I understand their concern about people really sharing accounts, but it seemed to be taken care of by a limit on number of devices you could register for streaming. It used to be either 5 or 6 which is probably a lot, but something like 3 is probably reasonable (TV + couple iPads). The iPad app is really nice, is it unreasonable that one person is watching on the go, while the other person is watching back at home? In any case, their streaming selection is pretty weak, the only reason I was using it because of portability and convenience. Amazon Prime has very similar selection and with fast shipping it's actually a decent deal if you shop there a lot (we do lately with all the baby supplies). Netflix is losing Starz as well, so it really looks like they are raising prices while reducing service, so in a way they are behaving like MTA :) I'm not surprised everybody got pissed off.
We don't have cable either, and I'd love to be able to pay for a few channels that I would actually watch which is not available, so the more I get restricted in ways I can conveniently watch something, the more likely I'm just to fire up the torrent :)

[plicease]

I agree that it is reasonable that you should be able to both use streaming, maybe even at the same time, but I don't think it is entirely unreasonable to have to pay something extra for multiple parallel streams. I think if you have multiple TVs you usually have to pay for extra cable boxes. I may be totally off on that, the only time I had cable was when it was included in the rent and the cable from the wall plugged right into the TV.

Like I said, I am considering getting rid of my account myself, and part of that calculation will be the price/selection available, but I am keeping it for now, and keeping not cable for now as well :)

[drkryl.livejournal.com]

that's a good point about extra cable box, but they do not charge you double the price, you just pay a small amount extra for the actual box rental - it's still a single monthly fee for content.

[plicease]

Your point about wanting to be able to watch the few things that you want without having to pay for a million channels you don't watch via cable, or Netflix bundling is well taken. I suspect that people with our viewing habits are not profitable for content providers so we get the short end of the stick, and as you say the torrents are out there.

[drkryl.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's the same stuff as with music industry earlier, they'll have to realize that they only lose money by denying people choices :)