∞ New pricing plans for Netflix

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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. 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.

Personally, I only stream videos from Netflix, so this price change doesn’t really affect me. The streaming plan is still $7.99 and Netflix is still the best, so I’ll be sticking with it.


  • http://www.gtdaily.net/?source=disqus George Tinari

    I don’t have an internet-connected TV or a set-top box, plus the streaming collection is much smaller than the collection of DVDs. So I’ve been paying the $10 per month for both, and this change pisses me off.

    • http://twitter.com/zwei zwei

      Why would this piss you off? You just said you don’t have Netflix Streaming on your TV. By giving you the DVD-only plan at $7.99 you will actually be saving money.

      • http://www.gtdaily.net/?source=disqus George Tinari

        But I stream on my iPhone and iPad.

        • http://twitter.com/zwei zwei

          I see. As I said below, you just have to realize how big streaming has gotten. We’re talking individual deals that run hundreds of millions of dollars. They can either charge more to expand their streaming rights …or remain the same and listen to people complain about how crappy the streaming selection is.

          As far as DVDs go, if you are mainly watching new releases you might look into a $59 Roku + Amazon Video. That’s how I watch any new releases I’ve been dying to see. They also have weekly sales ($0.99-$1.99) on new movies. You get much better deals than you do on iTunes.

  • http://twitter.com/zwei zwei

    I am on the streaming-only plan already, so this change doesn’t affect me. I really don’t think people understand just how much money Netflix is planning on (and already) putting out to get streaming rights for popular content. Back when streaming was new they could get by with letting people stream for little to nothing, but that time has passed. Netflix users are already watching more streaming content than DVDs. Hell, there was just a story about how Netflix was consuming more bandwidth than P2P networks now. Anyone who complains that they are getting ripped off is either spoiled, or simply doesn’t understand how big streaming has become …and it’s only going to get bigger.

    If you want to talk about getting a raw deal …we can always talk about Hulu+

    • Anonymous

      It’s not so much a feeling of being “unfair”. It’s still a good deal. It’s a matter of how they presented it. From my perspective, I’m now paying much more for the same service. If this rate hike was coupled with better service or new streaming content or at least if the rate increase was more incremental, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

  • http://www.theuniversalsteve.com Anonymous

    My viewing is currently about 50:50 between DVDs and streaming on the Apple TV. One advantage to DVDs is the ability to show subtitles. That comes in handy on BBC series especially.

    I’ve been using Netflix since it was pay-per-rental. I became a subscriber when it was very first offered. Because of that, they’ve always given me a four-at-a-time deal for the three-at-a-time price. So my monthly charge is going from $20 to $30. I guess I can’t complain too much since the Netflix stock I bought back in 2006 has gone up 1175%. But I’ll probably switch to the three-at-a-time plan. The pricing goes up $4/month from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3, but $6 from 3 to 4 so they obviously are encouraging us to stick to 1, 2, or 3 DVDs at a time.

  • Steven Peralta

    I have streaming and DVD.  DVD mostly because the streaming titles are still very limited, and I do enjoy the extra content on most (some) DVDs.  I do miss the ability on streaming to activate subtitles – sometimes the audio mix on movies buries the dialog and I don’t like having to jack up the volume to make out the words, then get hit with a barrage of special effects sound so prevalent in today’s movies.  I guess I’ll just eat the price increase for the time being until the streaming-only selection get more new titles, although it’s not clear when, or if, that’s going to happen, given Hollywood’s penchant for “protecting” their intellectual property.  DVDs may be on the way out as a rental format in any case, since more and more of the DVD titles from Netflix and others contain only the movie and no extras (again, Hollywood “protecting” its IP).  If restricted content on rental DVDs ends up being the norm, streaming-only will probably win the value proposition on the convenience factor alone.