Exactly. Am I happy that prices are raising? Nope - it hurts my bottom line.

But at the same time I can understand from a business standpoint why it is necessary. The price to expand their digital streaming service is ballooning quickly as companies realize there's a lot of money to be made from it.

I personally dumped the disc service and stuck with streaming. I like their back catalogue of TV shows.
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Funny, I just the same email, and I'm thinking of dropping DVDs and keeping streaming since I've been finding so much streaming stuff recently. Sure, not a ton of new releases, but plenty of stuff from a year or two ago that I haven't seen yet. Lots of TV shows. Lots of stuff that isn't quite as mainstream like Documentaries. Relative to a year or two ago, the streaming selection has increased exponentially. I don't think I've watched an actual DVD for a month or so.

But yeah the sudden increase does suck.
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I read an article on CNN yesterday about this.
The reason is Studio's, like Sony dictate that once a certain amount of people have downloaded a particular movie, then it must be removed.
Its in their contract with Netflix, and we are going to start seeing this more and more. Here is the article if you are interested:

http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/08/tech...ract/index.htm
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If the reason for the increase is the production companies holding their feet to the fire why dont tell their customers that? The email I received states that they are "lowering" cost by separating streaming (now 7.99) and dvd rental (now also 7.99) so 15.98 is now lower than 9.99. Thanks netflix
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I'm hoping this change will increase their streaming options. I switched to streaming only and am returning the DVDs I've had for 6 months.


MCS
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I dumped the DVDs a while ago...streaming only now and Red Box or On Demand for new releases.
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I get one dvd at a time and streaming.
There's been tons of stuff online and in the newspaper about Netflix hogging ISP's resources, and everyone wanting to get a taste. My guess is that this move is to satiate some of that.
I use Netflix streaming constantly, and there's always a dvd here, so we definately get our money's worth. I can't imagine we'd stop using it. We have Time Warner and their lineup of On Demand stuff is lousy. If I had Comcast's On Demand I wouldn't even have Netflix.
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I got this yesterday too and am kind of pissed about the increase and will probably drop the streaming as their streaming selection leaves little to be desired. I am also contemplating dropping them altogether since Redbox for the amount of movies we watch is cheaper and just as convenient since my closest box is less than 2 miles away. I personally think it's a bad move for them especially since they don't offer anything new on their streaming portion. We only use the Streaming for our daughter but with Nick and Disney being Free on Demand even that has been getting used less.
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My son works in their call center -- they were really busy yesterday :-)
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I really like the streaming but the shows we really want to see are not there (yet?). I also like the first-run DVDs so we can see stuff at home and not have to wait ages...

I am sure that they are trying to expand their catalog, but I have been waiting a long time...

I can use my Roku box to download from other sources -- may have to give Amazon a try...
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I agree that this is upsetting. Especially since they did a slight raise last year by a dollar I thought they would slowly up it that way instead of a giant leap for those of us with both DVD and streaming plans. Now, the price is lowered for unlimited DVDs with one out but the price before included streaming so it's not actually cheaper. I will probably have to end up canceling the DVD out and going to streaming only. Maybe that is what they want though. So they save money on mailing and have enough to pay the studios, etc.
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We use Redbox for all the stuff we really want to see. I can even reserve the movies. There's two of those machines within just a couple miles, so it makes it really cheap, easy and convenient. Even if we forget to return it the next day it still only costs 2 bucks. Way cheaper than the $5.00 and $8.00 titles available on the tv. :-)
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agreed, will be dropping before next billing cycle

anyone try RED BOX?
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Red Box is good and cheap. DVDs are 1.00 and Blu-Ray is 1.50. For the 3 or 4 movies we watch a month after some thought this morning I think I am really leaning toward just dropping Netflix completely unless they improve their streaming game by end of the month.
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I am thinking about dropping them too. I was just billed so I am going to hold onto it for another couple weeks since they won't refund partial months. Maybe I will change my mind by then, but I have been using it less recently so I probably will still drop.
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I use red box all the time. The girlfriend is constantly getting coupon codes for rentals, so we either pay nothing, or 53 cents. At 1 or 2 movies a week (one for us, one for the kid), well, you can see the savings...
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Will content be changing? If so, that may have an impact on price. I know that a friend of mine told me a year ago that Netflix was supposed to start having even new releases available for streaming right away. Also, there was supposed to be an agreement with Nintendo for streaming 3D movies to the new 3DS. I'm not sure if that means 3D will be available for streaming for everyone or not.

I'm actually happy with the new selection.
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I believe this price change doesn't start until September 1st. So we have one billing cycle in-between.
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The in-laws use Amazon Prime, which has streaming. They like it and use it a lot, but also use netflix, so I don't think that they have a sense of one over the other. Anyone here use the Amazon service as your only streaming source?

I need to price the multi-DVD service for netflix, since several things that we are watching have multiple episodes per DVD, that would be equivalent to the streaming service plus one DVD. If the multi DVD is a better price, we'll likely drop the streaming soon.

If anyone comes across any trade rags or other good source discussing the motivations for the new pricing model, I'd appreciate you posting a link here. I'll do the same. A 60% price increase in one shot is unbelievable to me, unless they think that they have a captive market.
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I know RED-BOX is everywhere out here. They are the reason my Video store dropped the price of DVD from $2.50 to a $1 & BLU-RAY from $4 to $2.50 & I've been a member at this Video place since 1996 when it was all VHS & just a few DVD's. They also get all the new releases about two weeks before the release date which is SWEET IMO. :-)

I did the Netflix thing for awhile but did not like the fact that everything I wanted was always out. This was a few years ago things may have changed. I'm old skool & sticking to the Video place 2-mins from the house. :-)
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