Loading ...When Netflix raised its prices last month, users reacted in a big way. Through social sites like Facebook and Twitter and even on Netflix’s company blog, users responded to the announcement with thousands of negative remarks.
Will users abandon the site as a result? And is the company’s reputation tarnished? WebProNews spoke to Bryan Gonzalez, the director of Social Media Labs at the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, who told us that he didn’t think the impact would be that significant for either Netflix or the users.
Although some users could actually drop Netflix, they would have the chance to see what other services are available. On the Netflix side, Gonzalez said that users might realize just how valuable its offerings are.
What do you think the impact will be?
What it did was show many people’s ignorance of what they signed up for and how much of the details actually read. I am a Netflix user and here’s the whole “price” issue simplified:
1. Instant Viewing accounts – price unchanged
2. Instant Viewing & DVD Viewing accounts – price changed from 10 to 16 dollars.
3. DVD Viewing accounts – price unchanged
Essentially, Netflix wants users to maker the choice of either DVD or Instant Viewing. Or else pay full price for both services. For an avid movie viewer, paying for 4 DVD rentals but getting as many as I like per month is still a great deal to me.
I read the contracts and it is a price increase no two ways about it. I am looking for and finding alternatives to Netflix.
Too big a one-time increase. We’re all running through August as the last month at our old pricing, then we’re outathere. Watch NF’s revenues take the mondo hit in September. There’s just too much ad hoc and free content out there to suffer that kind of gouge.
A million thanks for posting this infmrotaion.
Netflix is still a great deal. It’s a lot less than the $75 that I used to pay for cable.
The movie choices on Netflix streaming are awful. It’s like bad cable. It’s why I won’t pay a separate price. I cancelled the streaming. It won’t be missed. After I return the latest DVD I’m cancelling the mail service too. It’s more convenient to go to Redbox. And Netflix has always treated their customers poorly. This is nothing new.
I don’t get why people keep writing here that say Netflix Streaming is as bad a bad Cable. Really? Last time I checked you could still catch SPARTACUS, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, Rescue Me, Luther just top name a few shows. Heck before they had their fall out with Showtime, you were able to catch Dexter as well.
You are not going to get all of the NEW RELEASES on streaming, because the Studios want people to buy the DVDs first. After a few months, it maybe on Netflix streaming though. If you can drop off you DVD the very next day, than RedBox can be a great deal. If you are like me that have to pick your opportunity and it may be 6 days later, than RedBox is not so good. Bottomline is for $15/Mo, Netflix is worth it.
If you have used both the Streaming and the mail order DVDs – I think it is still worth it. They have a HUGE selection of DVDs, and a large selection available for streaming. I have not had the need to contact them for customer service, so I cannot judge them there…
I have to contend with Bryan up there when he says having a $10/month bill is ok, but when it “gets up to $16/month” that is something to consider… Is $6/month really going to break the bank – if so, you might want to deeply reconsider the $10/month bill in the first place…
Also, in relation to actually paying to see a movie in the theater Netflix is a bargain.
I used to pay $70 for cable and had hundreds of channels, but there was never anything on that I wanted to watch. So it cost a fortune and I couldn’t enjoy it! Now I watch what I want, when I want to. For me it still a good deal. Although, I wish they would have given us more warning. I will continue both services and even though it will cost more, I’m still saving $55.00 a month.
I think Netflix is a bad deal. I had it for over a year and never had good quality DVD. Receive two DVDs and chances are one of them are to scratched up to watch…So you send it back and wait for another to come in. Sit down to watch a good movie and it freezes half way through….This happened to me time and time again and that’s why I canceled there service. Very poor quality. I don’t spend money to waste my time on a product that only works half the time.
I’ll just stream movies for free: hulu, crackle, fancast,
the selection is about the same.
Netfliks is just depending on people tooooooooo lazy to look around