"Why Netflix's Price Hike Doesn't Bother Me"

The question, if we can see past the crazy net rage for just a moment, should be what's a fair price for a service like Netflix's. I'm all for putting the screws to companies that bilk customers, but is that really what Netflix is up to?

Techland editor Doug Aamoth compiled a list of Netflix alternatives this morning. There's Blockbuster, which lets you rent one video disc at a time for $12 a month (but $4 more than Netflix). There's Redbox, with its $1 per day fee—not bad at all, except you have to return the discs a day later, and if you watch more than eight shows a month, you're back at Netflix pricing, plus out the travel time and gas to-from your nearest Redbox unit (that, and Redbox's rental selection is trifling). There's Hulu Plus, similarly priced at $8 a month for streaming-only, but, well, it's streaming only, and the selection's tiny, unless you're into often obscure TV shows and films. There's Amazon Prime Instant Video, but like Hulu Plus, the selection's prohibitively limited, and unless you're a Prime member ($79 a year) you'll pay $2.99 for each two-day rental.

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each.


Your current $14.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 2 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $11.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $19.98 a month ($7.99 + $11.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.