Netflix Testing $5.99 Per Month

Netflix has said that they will be testing lower prices, and this is the best offer I've seen so far:

We don't know how many movies you get for $5.99 per month (probably 1 at-a-time), but if you've seen this in the wild please let us know.

Don't get your hopes up that you can switch to this plan. I called customer service and they can't give you a "test" price. So if you see a great offer from Netflix, grab it while you can.

Thanks to Matt for sending this in.

Comments

[E. Craig Crawford]

Interesting. I just hope they make it clear to prospective customers exactly what they can expect for that price. I wonder if it was 3-4 a month for example would customers keep their movies longer than is typical. The longer movies are out, the fewer to be shipped to other customers.

OK, I won't mention the T word, but this ad might answer the question, "How could things get worse?" Of course, what I'm really hoping is that I'm so ignorant about savvy marketing that I don't see how this offer will work to make it better for all Netflix customers.

[moviegal]

$5.99 is probably a lure to get new customers to try the service, and then they will eventually either quit Netflix or upgrade to the other plans.

[Aron]

5.99$ was only one of the test price points run heavily this weekend. They were all for a 1-out 3-limit plan.

I suspect most people reading this site watch a lot more movies that that, but I think there is a very large percentage of America that rents underneath that limit. I'm pretty sure that the average Blockbuster store customer is in the 2-4 rentals per month range.

[mattd0g]

Yesterday when I clicked on the $5.99 link, there were no $5.99 plans. This morning I got an ad in my Yahoo! mail for $4.99. When you click through there is a plan for 1 DVD At-A-Time, Limit 2 per month for $4.99.

This plan would give users a cap of 24 movies a year. Maybe Netflix is going to test more plans that stabilize the number of rentals per month and move away from the unlimited rentals. It seems they lose customers who are on the heavy renter side because of throttling and lose people who don't watch many movies because of inactivity.

Why can't they just charge you a base rate for being a member and then charge a per disc rental? That way people could go up or down on movies whenever they need to. If Netflix can come up with a "fairness algorithm", they ought to be able to come up with a billing algorithm.

[Aron]

"Why can't they just charge you a base rate for being a member and then charge a per disc rental? "

Sadly, because as much as I and Netflix probably wish they did, people don't behave like calculating computers. The idea of each rental having a cost, means every time they rent they subconciously are thinking about money, and that has a deterrent effect.

If people were rational beings, Netflix could institute a service that was more or less their cost + small profit percentage. There would be no throttling.

Needless to say, those renting more than 10 discs right now would be paying a lot more since there would be no one to subsidize them.

[JD]

Can anyone tell me where I can find the 4.99/5.99 offers online? Can't seem to find them anywhere...Thanks!

[Kevin H]

Oh THIS should be interesting.. I wonder if they are doing this to defray the attention from their throttling trial coming up. If not, maybe they are doing it to please ppl...

If they wanted to please people, they would stop throttling!! Maybe they need to resort tothese kinds of practices until they start making more money? HA HA :)

It's stupid.... in fact... it is so stupid, I can call it a very Blockbuster-ish thing to do!! Oops was that out loud?

OK I'm done..

[gir]

2 a month for $4.99. 3 a month for $5.99. 4 a month for $11.99.

Anyone want to guess what the cap would be for the 3-out plan ($17.99)?

[nickb]

You know they might not be capping all the plans. I can see Netflix going about this like they have with the 2 out/4 month and the 2 out/unlimited edition.

I fiddled with the 2 out/4mo plan and I'd always be rushing to return DVDs at the end of the month. I'm willing to pay more 3 bucks more for the unlimited edition. But I can also see where you'd want to save money and you just watch a movie every weekend the 2 out/4 month plan would be exactly what you'd need for 2/3 of the year. (Dang lack of a logical calendar system!)

[gir]

Probably not, but some people have asked NetFlix to set and communicate a limit. Just wanted them to realize what kind of cap they could expect.

[ruk]

I doubt NFLX will stray from the "unlimited" rental model. For all the high volume renters, there are far more who rent a few a month, and the credit card is hit, month after month after month. They don't want people thinking on a per rental cost basis.

Same reason that cable companies have desperately fought against making cable tv channels available "a la carte".. how many of those 500 channels do you really watch?

[gir]

I'd like to know what the average number of rentals is, not including heavy users. Is the average light user renting 3 a month? 5? 8?

If I were on the 3-out plan, my equivalent usage would be just over 7.

[Rhinosaurus]

Does anyone know where a banner can be found to get the $4.99 or $5.99 deal? I have been looking all over the internet and they don't let you get that pricing on their site unless you clicked through on a banner.

[low-tech cyclist]

I got the *banners* for the $5.99 and $6.99 deals. (At washingtonpost.com, if you're wondering.) But when I clicked through, the $9.99 deal was the cheapest that Netflix' website would offer me.

I called Netflix to ask them about that, and the phone rep said she couldn't help me - I was supposed to be put through directly to the offer in the banner, and if the software didn't do that, there was nothing she could do to fix it.

Could I talk with her boss? No.

Bait and switch.

[azores]

This is perfect: like so many other stupid companies, NetFlix decides to sacrifice it's existing and LOYAL customer base by offering what is basically a half-price plan to anyone else who walks in off the street and signs up.

In effect, Netflix is punishing you for being a loyal and longstanding member. Somebody promote the exec who thought this one up.

Netflix: Hopefully you'll get some new customers with this deal. You'll need at least one to take my place when I leave because you're screwing me over. And, I've no doubt you'll need to replace my replacement when you screw them over.

[earlnmeyerflask]

Netflix has this promotion on thier homepage now. I really don't see what the big deal is. They try a new promotion, which is a limited version of the 1-at-a-time deal. It doesn't inconvenience the rest of us that rent more than 3 DVDs/month.