On the Netflix blog Jessie Becker announced several important changes for subscribers and new customers:
- Official announcement of the DVD-only plans: $7.99 for one-out and $11.99 for 2-out, unlimited (dvd.netflix.com).
- The DVD & streaming unlimited plans are now separated into two $7.99 plans, or $15.98 for both (replacing the $9.99 combined plan).
- The price changes are immediate for new customers, and for existing customers the new pricing will start on September 1st.
The reason behind the changes:
Last November when we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan. At the time, we didn’t anticipate offering DVD only plans. Since then we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as non-members. Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs. Creating an unlimited DVDs by mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs by mail offering.
Netflix recently announced a new focus on the DVD side of the business, and they've formed a new business unit around DVD:
Reflecting our confidence that DVDs by mail is a long-term business for us, we are also establishing a separate and distinct management team solely focused on DVDs by mail, led by Andy Rendich, our Chief Service and Operations Officer and an 11 year veteran of Netflix.
You can view your current plan or select a new one at on the Your Account page on the Netflix website.
What do you think of the new pricing and plans?
After Sept, I envision swapping every month from 4 at a time discs only to 2 + streaming.
That will mean I wont get streaming for a month at a time but thats ok. Streaming content is not as good for me since my primary interest is new releases.
This way my annual cost will go from $240 to $252. A reasonable 5% increase.
I do think a "limited" streaming option should be available for those that dont want or need unlimited.
Posted by: RJM35126 | July 14, 2011 at 02:08 PM
Analyzing the pricing more closely it would appear that the old pricing from before the price hike a month ago is the basis for the DVD+IW pricing. Basically those old prices plus 7.99 equals the pricing of the plan to get both. So basically netflix is saying that IW is now an addon and costs 7.99 instead of basically being almost free. I'm probably going to switch to two at a time since I don't hold onto movies for days with the price increase it seems more worth my money than one at a time with the huge price hike compared to other plans.
Posted by: Jason | July 14, 2011 at 06:25 PM
they have really tarnished their name. Puts them in the same boat with Enron.
Posted by: Rodger_Massager | July 14, 2011 at 08:10 PM
Okay, someone please help me understand something. We currently have 2 dvd out/unlimited streaming. This is so we can stream to two devices at once, we were actually fine with 1 dvd out at a time. With this new plan, where we are required to pay 20 dollars for this, are we still able to stream to two devices at one time? Or possibly more devices? I have been looking all morning and cannot see any distinction on that....That is the dealbreaker in our household. If we have to pay from 14.99 to 20.00, but can only stream to one device at a time, it is a terrible deal. Thanks in advance for anyone who can answer that!
Posted by: Heather La Salle | July 15, 2011 at 08:05 AM
As for always having 2 streams available, that was the case for us with 1 dvd out plan, but the teenager logged in from someone else's house ONE time and we immediately got locked out and were allowed one stream, which is why we bumped up to two dvd plan. I guess that flagged a glitch? Our main concern is to be able to stream at least 2 at one time, so we need whatever plan that allows this. Does stream only have multiple streams, one stream, etc?
Posted by: Heather La Salle | July 15, 2011 at 08:32 AM
@Heather La Salle
I don't think the # of DVDs in your plan has anything to do with how many devices you can stream to. I have the 4 DVD out plan w/IW and can currently stream to 8 different devices.
Posted by: Komatsu99 | July 15, 2011 at 11:19 AM
The number of simultaneous streams has always been tied to the number of disks (it's in the terms-of-service and the FAQ - https://account.netflix.com/FAQ?p_faqid=2902). There's also been some leeway in practice because they over-provision (so you wouldn't have problems if a stream wasn't released properly). At least, that's the theory.
On the other hand the terms of service say you're allowed to register up to six devices, and we know they recently upped that (to 50 IIRC) so their TOS is out-of-date. They may change the simultaneous streams limit. I can see them wanting to charge more for more simultaneous streams, but i cannot see them tying it to the number of disks. That just doesn't make much sense any more.
Posted by: gir | July 15, 2011 at 12:13 PM
@gir
thanks for the clarification!
Posted by: Komatsu99 | July 15, 2011 at 01:10 PM
As someone who has no access to broadband I'm glad they have reduced the price of the 2 disc plan and I no longer subsidize those who stream. Thank you Netflix for listening to this customer.
Posted by: Fred Talmadge | July 16, 2011 at 11:06 AM
After the price increase, I dropped down to streaming only for the next month. I'm personally fine with the increase, because it gives me an incentive to explore elsewhere for new movies. I have Vudu and Cinemanow on my Blu-Ray player, and the movies on there are $4-$6 each and can always use Redbox down the street for $1 to $1.50 a movie as well. Blockbuster sucks, and its the incompetant Dish management (the same one that has programming disputes with everyone under the sun all the time) that's causing a bad company to go even worse...so, no I won't be taking advantage of thier disc rental service. I have a lot more options now than ever before.
Posted by: Louis S | July 16, 2011 at 02:43 PM
May not be a customer very much longer...too bad they had to ruin such a good thing because they took someone's advice on how to make more money. Who are you listening to Netflix...your advisers or the loyal customers who pay your salaries? Sad day.
Posted by: JohnB | July 17, 2011 at 12:22 AM
I hate it, I really do. These price increases are harsh and reflect many changes as I'm sure we've all seen.
1) This was likely going to happen if anything just based on the fact that Netflix consumes almost 1/3 of the bandwidth in the U.S. during peak hours according to what I've read.
2) Severe lack of competition. Blockbuster may come back as a threat to them, but that is years of recovery still in progress. Redbox is some competition, but lacks selection. All other services seem to have the same problem, they can compete with only parts of Netflix
3) Netflix own massive selection is a gift and a curse. So much to offer people, but having as much as they do comes at a price, and contracts are constantly changing. I only recently learned that contracts are very very different regarding rights to rent content over dvd or stream over the internet, and Netflix can only negotiate so much.
In summary, I hate this, and it makes me look at alternative options. Should the prices get much higher, I would have to pull out just for own wallets sake, or sadly cut down to one plan or the other. However, I will bite my tongue and deal with it, for now.
Posted by: Gregory Zingler | July 17, 2011 at 12:29 AM
So what are we going to get in return for this increase in price???
I have been a netflix 4 at a time subscriber for 12 years, and service has gotten worse as prices have increased over the years.
My biggest complaint is in the lack of availability for new release movies on DVD. Most movies at the top of my queue sit there for weeks and even months indicating "long wait".
It has gotten so bad that I often end up deleting them from my queue and going to redbox to get them.
I have not decided what to do yet. I'm definitely not staying with the 4 at a time plan. I may drop to 3 or 2 at a time plus streaming. Or I may go with streaming only and use redbox for new release DVD's that are never available for streaming.
I will stay with netflix for now but they better improve their service, offering more new releases via streaming and increase their DVD stock so we can actually get the movies we want.
Such a large price increase is a bad move!
If they want to make a good move, they need to find a way to stream a la carte live TV from stations like Disney, History channel, Discovery, etc. for those of us who have cut the cable. If they did that at a reasonable price they would be back in my good graces...
Posted by: Greg Taylor | July 18, 2011 at 08:57 AM