Netflix announced that they will be raising the price for the standard Netflix service on June 15th to $21.99 (it's $19.95 now).
They say they will use the increased revenue to "improve the rental experience" (hope they buy a few extra copies of Lost in Translation, I've been waiting since it was released). Netflix is worried that the price increase may slow down growth or increase churn, but it could also increase gross margins and give them the money to purchase more movies.
What do you think?
Not sure why people think that there is some sort of conspiracy out there and that Netflix is "withholding and stalling" their rentals. That's ridiculous in my opinion. I've been with them off-and-on since their inception and have mostly been satisfied with their service. It doesn't come as a shock that their prices are going up. That's part of living in the good ole U.S. of A., the home of capitalism, remember? I am on the 8 out plan and haven't decided if I'm going to drop down. Currently I rent and watch two dozen movies a month. That's just over $2 a movie, even with the price increase, and I can't complain about that.
Posted by: Scott | May 29, 2004 at 01:57 PM
It really becomes obvious that Netflix does indeed throttle the shipping of DVDs right after upgrading. I went from 3- to 5-out a month ago and I find it very difficult and frustrating to get a decent amount of movies. I can get a movie every other day and with the occasional mail hiccup expect to _EASILY_ watch 50 movies each month. This assumes I watch every movie in the afternoon and ship them out that evening in the late post.
I am very interested in a class-action lawsuit against Netflix if there are any attorneys out there that want to take them on.
Posted by: David | June 28, 2004 at 05:23 PM
Why does Netflix throttle accounts once it's upgraded? Do they not want customers to go on higher-priced plans?
I'm about to finish up a free-trial with Netflix. For the next few months, I'd like to watch about 5 or 6 discs a week. I don't want the bother of having to deal with throttling, so I thought signing up for the 6-out plan would cover my bases. Is this not the case? If I tried to rent 20-22 discs/month, would I be tagged for throttling regardless of the plan I was on?
Posted by: JJK | November 12, 2005 at 12:29 AM