As you’ve no doubt heard, Netflix has decided to separate the business where it physically mails people DVDs from the business that streams content on the Internet and will still be relevant in, oh, five years. Now, instead of paying ten bucks a month for both, you have to pay $16 a month for both. Or you could pick one or the other for eight bucks. Oh, by the way, both of the eight buck plans are unlimited.
Yeah, Netflix could have handled it better: they announced it in a blog post instead of making a big clear deal out of it, and it is a 60% increase. On the other hand, Netflix’s own customers could have handled it a lot better: you’d think Netflix was demanding DNA samples and firstborns instead of an extra six bucks a month. Tech blogs have been acting like Netflix is doomed, although some are actually bothering to lay out what’s going on.
Price increases were inevitable. Netflix managed to get real deals on their content: Disney and Sony, for example, signed away the entire Starz network for $30 million a year; now they want $300 million. And Netflix actually increased their prices the fairest way possible: separating streaming and DVD so if you only wanted one, you’d pay the same price. And honestly, before anybody throws a fit, I want to see when the last time they actually watched a DVD from Netflix was.
No, the real jerks here are the customers. You’d think this was a new Facebook layout or something, the way people are freaking out over six bucks. When one CNET writer pointed out to his coworker that Netflix had to pay more for content, she said “So what? That’s their problem!”
So basically, they should pay through the nose for movies that you want to watch an unlimited amount, and you shouldn’t have to pay more for it. Wow. That’s gratitude right there.
(Photoshop via Boing Boing)