Netflix boosts Blu-ray subscription pricing
By Danny King -- Video Business,03/30/2009
MARCH 30 | Netflix will increase the price it's charging subscribers for access to Blu-ray Disc titles next month as both its high-definition disc inventory and adoption of the option has surged in the past few months.
Netflix's Blu-ray premium will range between $1 a month for its cheapest plan, which allows customer to rent one DVD at a time with two in a month, to $9 a month for its most expensive plan, which allows customers to keep eight DVDs at a time for an unlimited amount a month, Netflix VP of marketing Jessie Becker wrote on Netflix's Facebook page today. The largest movie-rental service via mail, which will change the prices April 27, will charge an extra $4 a month for the three-DVDs-out-at-a-time, unlimited-rental plan, which is believed to be Netflix's most popular offering.
The price increase takes effect as Neflix has widened its Blu-ray inventory as rentals of the high-definition discs have increased. About 1 million Netflix subscribers use the Blu-ray option, up from about 700,000 subscribers at the end of last year. The company's selection of Blu-ray titles has grown by about 60% in the past six months to about 1,300, according to Becker.
"We're committed to providing a high quality Blu-ray experience for our members who choose to add Blu-ray access," Becker wrote today. "In order to do that, we need to adjust Blu-ray pricing. As a result, the monthly charge for Blu-ray access is increasing for most plans and will now vary by plan."
As Netflix has widened both the selection of digitally delivered titles and the number of components capable of video-streaming them directly to TV sets, the company also has increased revenue from subscribers who rent Blu-ray discs. Late last year, Netflix started testing the Blu-ray subscription option by adding $1 to monthly subscription plans.
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| Submitted by: | Alan Chan 4/1/2009 5:09:06 PM PT |
| Location: | South San Francisco |
| Occupation: | Restaurant Manager |
Netflix is multi-billion dollar corporation support by Wall Street Banker, you are wrong if you think they really care about you and me, all they care about is money, I was a Netflix member for 3 years and I close my account today, now I am free, I no-longer has to wait for my flix in the #@%$ Mail Box, I go back to my old-school neighborhood video store.
| Submitted by: | Fettastic (afettinthehand@yahoo.com) 4/1/2009 9:30:57 AM PT |
| Location: | Madison, WI |
| Occupation: | Purchasing |
Don't be fooled, this is to cover their STREAMING DEBT!It has nothing whatsoever to do with blu-ray, that's just an excuse because they figure we spend more on Blu-ray so we don't find filling their pockets. Let's show them how wrong they are! Grubert on the Highdefdigest.com forums proved it: "Interesting information on a Blockbuster-related article: Netflix has "$39 million in debt — largely due to the rollout of its streaming service." Now let me put on my tinfoil hat: The most popular plan with Netflix is the 3-discs-at-a-time plan. If we take that also as the average BD subscriber, then we have one million Netflix subscribers paying $4 extra a month, or $4 million total monthly. Or $36 million in April-December 2009. If we add the flat dollar being paid in November 2008-March 2009 we have another 2-3 million bucks. Or about $39 million. What a coincidence!" Well there ya go!
| Submitted by: | Fettastic (afettinthehand@yahoo.com) 4/1/2009 9:25:50 AM PT |
| Location: | madison, WI |
| Occupation: | Purchasing |
This is some bullcrap! I've been a Netflix subscriber for several years and I cancelled immediately after hearing this news. Blockbuster mail-only option is much cheaper than Netflix and doesn't charge extra for Blu-ray so we need to do a mass exodus over to them. Either that or Redbox.
| Submitted by: | Nancy Berg 4/1/2009 2:19:59 AM PT |
| Location: | San Francisco |
| Occupation: | Teacher |
This is what you get when most of the small video store are kill by Netflix, five to ten years from now, there will be no small video store left in America, the only place you can rent movies is Netflix, ballbuster on-line, apple TV or from you local blood sucking cable company. It will turn in to a monoply, you will watch what they want you to watch, you will pay what they want you to pay, because you ask for it and because you think is too much trouble to get off your couch and support you local small business.
| Submitted by: | Bjorn K (sdfe@sfet.com) 3/31/2009 4:06:02 PM PT |
| Location: | Los Angeles |
| Occupation: | Programmer |
I'm a previous Netflix subscriber, and figured that if I'd go back to Netflix or Blockbuster I would choose Netflix again, but now - NO WAY I'm paying an extra $4/month just for blu-ray. Sorry but that just doesn't make any sense at all, if blu-ray is getting bigger, and prices on blu-ray movies are dropping in price, Netflix should REMOVE any extra fees to rent blu-ray, not charge EVEN MORE for it. So next time, I'm going with Blockbuster.
| Submitted by: | Buck1212 3/31/2009 10:00:37 AM PT |
| Location: | Los Angeles, CA |
Netflix is masking this price hike as a necessity because of higher demand of Blu-Ray, but it's pretty obvious why they're hiking prices; Renting movies is becoming the method of choice for watching movies, and it's taking its toll on the movie studios. As a result, the studios are hiking up their revenue share pricing (pricing they give to rental companies like Blockbuster and Netflix) so they get a bigger chunk of the profits to make up for less DVD sales.
| Submitted by: | Rex Bittle 3/30/2009 4:29:42 PM PT |
| Location: | Jemison, AL |
| Occupation: | Management |
This is too big of a jump in price all at one time. And the business moves flies in the face of the current economic situation. As much as I love my Netflix they can't consider themselves a monoply and just do whatever they want to. There are other options including simply becoming cost prohibitive and losing me as a customer based on price/cost alone.
| Submitted by: | Kevin Billingsley 3/30/2009 4:23:22 PM PT |
| Location: | Silicon Valley |
| Occupation: | CE Industry |
I have to wonder how this will work out for them. Being an early adoptor to Netflix this is about the third time they have raised prices. With a Blockbuster and Hollywood video around the corner I am beginning to question the value of Netflix.
| Submitted by: | Ryan (ryan.agadoni@biola.edu) 3/30/2009 3:33:52 PM PT |
| Location: | LA, CA |
| Occupation: | Illustrator |
I understand that Blu-Rays cost more than DVDs, but they're also a lot more durable than DVDs, so shouldn't that even out? I've seen so many horrible scratched or cracked DVDs arrive in my mailbox, but all the Blu-Rays have been fine thanks to their excellent scratch-resistant coating. So, since they won't have to replace as many BRs as DVDs, shouldn't that factor into the cost? I'm not happy with the $4 increase.
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