Good news, everyone! Netflix jacking prices again!

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:55 am

For those who were bragging up Netflix stock performance, It was at or around 300 when the increase/split was announced. A steady decline has since driven the price down to 241 as of today and the trend doesnt appear to be ending there. Considering the price changes havent even gone into effect yet, Im thinking its going to get worse before it gets better.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:04 pm

rshetts2 wrote:For those who were bragging up Netflix stock performance, It was at or around 300 when the increase/split was announced. A steady decline has since driven the price down to 241 as of today and the trend doesnt appear to be ending there. Considering the price changes havent even gone into effect yet, Im thinking its going to get worse before it gets better.

The DOW is down over 500 points in the past few days. I don't think it's a good time to judge a company on today's stock performance.

Also, NFLX was around $260 when the new pricing became common knowledge. It went up because of it and has gone back down because of subscription results.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 7:40 am

/sigh

I just went to the streaming-only option. My wife is simply too busy for us to watch movies routinely, so paying extra for the DVD didn't make sense. The kids watch Futurama and other shows on Netflix instantwatch all the time, so we kept it more for them than for anything else. I guess I'm going to have to hunt around for cheap DVDs to be able to watch the movies I actually want to see.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:24 pm

tonight's the night.
I'll be canceling my subscription. I just sent back my last DVD; "Hall Pass" which was pretty funny.

Watching 3 DVDs + 1 streaming a month (on a good month) does not equal $16 plus tax.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 3:34 pm

Lassr wrote:tonight's the night.
I'll be canceling my subscription. I just sent back my last DVD; "Hall Pass" which was pretty funny.

Watching 3 DVDs + 1 streaming a month (on a good month) does not equal $16 plus tax.

I thought Hall Pass was very funny...but apparently the critics don't agree...Rotten Tomatoes has it at 35%! Whoa...I knew they were hard on comedies, but come ON...this is not a 35% movie...it's not a work of cinematographic art, but I would easily recommend it, and would give it a decent 75% or so.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 3:41 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote:
Lassr wrote:tonight's the night.
I'll be canceling my subscription. I just sent back my last DVD; "Hall Pass" which was pretty funny.

Watching 3 DVDs + 1 streaming a month (on a good month) does not equal $16 plus tax.

I thought Hall Pass was very funny...but apparently the critics don't agree...Rotten Tomatoes has it at 35%! Whoa...I knew they were hard on comedies, but come ON...this is not a 35% movie...it's not a work of cinematographic art, but I would easily recommend it, and would give it a decent 75% or so.

I agree. I had not gotten it because it was not well received but someone at work recommended it. No where close to Oscar worthy but it made me laugh.

<waiting on the inevitable internet rage post on your misuse of the Rotten Tomatoes score>

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:21 pm

Lassr wrote:
Carpet_pissr wrote:
Lassr wrote:tonight's the night.
I'll be canceling my subscription. I just sent back my last DVD; "Hall Pass" which was pretty funny.

Watching 3 DVDs + 1 streaming a month (on a good month) does not equal $16 plus tax.

I thought Hall Pass was very funny...but apparently the critics don't agree...Rotten Tomatoes has it at 35%! Whoa...I knew they were hard on comedies, but come ON...this is not a 35% movie...it's not a work of cinematographic art, but I would easily recommend it, and would give it a decent 75% or so.
I agree. I had not gotten it because it was not well received but someone at work recommended it. No where close to Oscar worthy but it made me laugh.

<waiting on the inevitable internet rage post on your misuse of the Rotten Tomatoes score>

Yeah, I should know better than to post as I did. Disclaimer: Before anyone gets riled, yes I understand that the RT "score" is not something given out by RT, but a compilation of scores/opinions from across a very VERY broad swath of "critics". My poor word choice might lead one to believe that the % rating was somehow earned, but my intent was to cast into question that very same overall reaction by the critics themselves.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:56 pm

Boom goes the dynamite! Starz has ended renewal negotiations with Netflix and will pull their content when the current contract expires in February 2012. Ouch!

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:29 pm

rshetts2 wrote:Boom goes the dynamite! Starz has ended renewal negotiations with Netflix and will pull their content when the current contract expires in February 2012. Ouch!

Very bad news for Netflix.

theohall · Post by **theohall** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 1:49 pm

So it looks like switching to DVDs only was the right thing to do. Considering I am going through 4-6 disks per week right now, the 3 disk plan is worth it.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:14 pm

I'm going to keep an eye on how much use my kids get out of Netflix. Right now, they're watching the new season of Futurama and not really watching too much netflix at all (plus I carefully limit their TV/PC time to an hour a day). If the volume of Netflix watching doesn't increase, I may abandon it altogether.

Does anybody know, is it an instant thing to go from zero Netflix to netflix streaming, or is there a lag of more than a few hours (such as a day or more)? Also, is there a way to put my account into complete hibernation and then reactivate it, or would I actually have to cancel my account and then later create a new one if I decided to come back? Anybody ever done any of these sorts of things?

Malificent · Post by **Malificent** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:19 pm

Odin wrote:I'm going to keep an eye on how much use my kids get out of Netflix. Right now, they're watching the new season of Futurama and not really watching too much netflix at all (plus I carefully limit their TV/PC time to an hour a day). If the volume of Netflix watching doesn't increase, I may abandon it altogether.

Does anybody know, is it an instant thing to go from zero Netflix to netflix streaming, or is there a lag of more than a few hours (such as a day or more)? Also, is there a way to put my account into complete hibernation and then reactivate it, or would I actually have to cancel my account and then later create a new one if I decided to come back? Anybody ever done any of these sorts of things?

I've canceled and reactivated my account a couple of times. They keep your queue in place for 2 years after you cancel.

KKBlue · Post by **KKBlue** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:31 pm

Ha! I just asked my husband a similar question and the response was just like Malificent's.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:39 pm

Malificent wrote:
Odin wrote:I'm going to keep an eye on how much use my kids get out of Netflix. Right now, they're watching the new season of Futurama and not really watching too much netflix at all (plus I carefully limit their TV/PC time to an hour a day). If the volume of Netflix watching doesn't increase, I may abandon it altogether.

Does anybody know, is it an instant thing to go from zero Netflix to netflix streaming, or is there a lag of more than a few hours (such as a day or more)? Also, is there a way to put my account into complete hibernation and then reactivate it, or would I actually have to cancel my account and then later create a new one if I decided to come back? Anybody ever done any of these sorts of things?
I've canceled and reactivated my account a couple of times. They keep your queue in place for 2 years after you cancel.

You can also put it on vacation hold for like 3 months.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:48 pm

Would definitely send a message if people started mass canceling now. I'm tempted.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:50 pm

Jag wrote:Would definitely send a message if people started mass canceling now. I'm tempted.

What message? That Netflix should further increase prices to pay for Starz's increased content licensing fees?

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:55 pm

theohall wrote:So it looks like switching to DVDs only was the right thing to do. Considering I am going through 4-6 disks per week right now, the 3 disk plan is worth it.

Yeah, I'm pleased with that decision. We watch around 15 disks per month. Totally worth the reduced $16 price.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:46 pm

The message sent might also be: oh shit...with this many canceling, we will have to jack our prices up EVEN MORE for our clients that stay to make up for these losses.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:56 pm

Netflix got lucky. They got a whole bunch of really great deals when they were a minor player which allowed them to offer some incredible pricing. Nobody expected their business to take such a huge market share so quickly. Now that their original set of contracts is starting to expire, the content providers aren't going to be willing to work with them at terms anywhere close to what they had before.

Netflix's pricing and business model was a lucky fluke. They're either going to have to drop what you get for the price, or seriously jack up rates to be able to deal with the big boys.

I'll tell you, though, the cable companies are dancing with joy right now.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:58 pm

Exactly. I hope Netflix did something constructive with whatever money they were able to make over the last ~2 years because I have a feeling we're about to see just how greedy the entertainment industry can get.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:16 pm

Goose. Golden Egg. Slow, strangling death.

I've said it before. I really wish that the antitrust people would take a closer look at the vertical integration of content creators, providers, distribution, and data companies.

Before Time Warner Cable was divested in 2009, Time Warner was front-to-back provider for the families of HBO, Turner, CNN, Warner Brothers, New Line, etc.

You can't tell me that it doesn't foster a collusive, anti-competitive marketplace.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 10:29 am

I'm increasingly afraid this may be right. Everybody's going to try to get their piece of the pie, potentially resulting in the demise of Netflix and the rise of replacement services each owned by and focused on the content of a particular distributor. To get the equivalent of Netflix, you'll need to sign up for 6-10 different competing services, each probably charging something close to what Netflix charges today. Honestly, I'd go back to the Blockbuster B&M model - or just resign myself to watching a lot fewer movies - before I'd be able to afford such a structure.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 10:37 am

We tried Hulu + because we weren't finding all that much on Netflix streaming. Holy crap it sucks. We watched all of the last season of the office and then couldn't find anything else. Needless to say I'm canceling it before the free week ends.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:12 am

Octavious wrote:We tried Hulu + because we weren't finding all that much on Netflix streaming. Holy crap it sucks. We watched all of the last season of the office and then couldn't find anything else. Needless to say I'm canceling it before the free week ends.

I've only used the free version of hulu, but I highly recommend Regenesis. Excellent series.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Sep 06, 2011 6:44 pm

I'm looking for official confirmation, but I'm seeing people say with a streaming only plan you can only have a single device streaming at a time. So I can't watch a movie on my computer while someone is watching a different movie on the Roku in another room.

It's never been an issue for me, but I'm guessing there are a few people with streaming only subscriptions that use more than one device at a time. If true, I'm sure it's going to go over well.

EDIT: Here's an article.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:03 pm

At this point it's almost as if Netflix is *trying* to lose as many customers as possible.

I canceled my subscription last night. I'm done with their shenanigans.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:07 pm

As Smoove's article mentions, this is an error, not a policy change. Everyone gets at least 2 simultaneous streams.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:09 pm

I always assumed they only allowed 1 stream. Huh.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:10 pm

An article on CNN noted that they tried to stream two movies, but could not. They could stream a tv show and a movie, however. Although that may be an oversight that's soon to be fixed.

I'm not going to cancel my streaming subscription just yet. I want to see how this plays out. My fear is that Netflix streaming will eventually become just a repository for straight to video schlock and the major studios will start pulling more and more of their movies/tv shows in favor of their own streaming services, or split up by studio across multiple services.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:10 pm

Octavious wrote:We tried Hulu + because we weren't finding all that much on Netflix streaming.

That makes little sense because Netflix has past seasons of The Office on Instant Streaming. You must have not looked very hard

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 2:00 pm

I agree with my brother--Hulu+ is awful. For $8 a month, I expect a whole lot more. I get more content just by having Amazon Prime. Ridiculous.

Personally, I'm keeping my Netflix streaming subscription because IMO Netflix is king of old (2 year+) tv. That is what I like to watch so I'm content with it. Especially with a few Red Box supplements when I want to see a new movie. Overall I think the whole tv/movie industry is a total mess right now. I partially cancelled cable because I couldn't bear to shovel almost $200 a month to the cable company. That is utter insanity. Cutting my monthly costs $140 by dropping the phone/video was a no-brainer. I'm seeing more and more of my friends starting to do the same. Considering all the entertainment alternatives and the state of our economy, I just can't see the status quo sustaining itself.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:03 pm

Well more bad news for Netflix. They apparently underestimated the drop in subscription when they upped their fees, by about 1 million subscribers. When the news hit, Netflix stocks dropped by over 16% and is now down to $174. Ouch. Add in the recent loss of Starz, who also controls the internet distribution rights to all movies from Disney and Sony and Netflix is reeling right now.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:17 pm

rshetts2 wrote:Well more bad news for Netflix. They apparently underestimated the drop in subscription when they upped their fees, by about 1 million subscribers. When the news hit, Netflix stocks dropped by over 16% and is now down to $174. Ouch. Add in the recent loss of Starz, who also controls the internet distribution rights to all movies from Disney and Sony and Netflix is reeling right now.

How long until ATT get in the streaming game? Where we can watch ATT and ComCast put Level3 down and then turn on each other for the ultimate in battle of evil over control of Internet traffic. It seems inevitable. Especially as they are predicting 60% of all Peak Internet traffic in the US will be for streaming "real time entertainment" by the end of the year.

http://www.sandvine.com/news/global_bro ... trends.asp" target="_blank

Netflix, themselves continue at about the 20% peak traffic mark in March (When this information was last compiled)

http://www.sandvine.com/general/documen ... sourceID=0" target="_blank

(Facebook haters will be happy to note that even with the coming google+ social networking is falling out of usage)

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:21 pm

LordMortis wrote:How long until ATT get in the streaming game?

You mean like UVerse On Demand? or something that's available to everyone on an ad hoc basis?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:30 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:
LordMortis wrote:How long until ATT get in the streaming game?
You mean like UVerse On Demand? or something that's available to everyone on an ad hoc basis?

I guess is what I'm getting at os how long until they try to fight for supremacy. Comcast have already started going to war with Netflix and I'm guessing that has influenced Starz negotiating power. Stand alone or the top of the food chain either way, ATT doesn't appear to be fighting like Comcast and Netflix are and that just seems uncharacteristic for ATT right now. Like they are enjoying Comcasts play at becoming the most evil company in the world. (I will lament the day that WalMart enters the telecommunications market)

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:42 pm

AT&T already has bitten off a huge chunk in their play for the wireless industry. I really doubt that they want to try and make major power plays in multiple SBUs at the same time. Everything we were told when we got rolled into the mothership was that wireless was the future of the company.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:38 pm

I'm posting in this thread because it still reminds me of Professor Farnsworth.

1 Million subscriptions cancelled

That's gotta sting.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:07 pm

Smoove_B wrote:I'm posting in this thread because it still reminds me of Professor Farnsworth.

1 Million subscriptions cancelled

That's gotta sting.

But remember to keep it in context...that is 1/25 (million), or 4% (not to say I don't think more will be jumping ship, cuz I do, and the same reason I shorted the stock as soon as I heard about the rate change).

Stock price went from $210 to $155 on this latest bit of news. I like Netflix a lot, and hope they don't go down, but they got double whammied unfortunately, with raising prices at the same time as losing content (and the potential for losing more coming down the pike).

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:31 am

This may be the most ridiculous thing I've ever read on a corporate blog. I had to check to see if it was April Fool's Day.

Reed Hastings wrote:I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. I’ll try to explain how this happened.

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) because they are afraid to hurt their initial business. Eventually these companies realize their error of not focusing enough on the new thing, and then the company fights desperately and hopelessly to recover. Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.

When Netflix is evolving rapidly, however, I need to be extra-communicative. This is the key thing I got wrong.

In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success. We have done very well for a long time by steadily improving our service, without doing much CEO communication. Inside Netflix I say, “Actions speak louder than words,” and we should just keep improving our service.

But now I see that given the huge changes we have been recently making, I should have personally given a full justification to our members of why we are separating DVD and streaming, and charging for both. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.

So here is what we are doing and why:

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD, plus lots of TV series. We want to advertise the breadth of our incredible DVD offering so that as many people as possible know it still exists, and it is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection on DVD. DVD by mail may not last forever, but we want it to last as long as possible.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently. It’s hard for me to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary and best: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”.

We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, and now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. Another advantage of separate websites is simplicity for our members. Each website will be focused on just one thing (DVDs or streaming) and will be even easier to use. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated. So if you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or email address, you would need to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn’t show up on Netflix, and vice-versa.

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). Members who subscribe to both services will have two entries on their credit card statements, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as the current charges.

Andy Rendich, who has been working on our DVD service for 12 years, and leading it for the last 4 years, will be the CEO of Qwikster. Andy and I made a short welcome video. (You’ll probably say we should avoid going into movie making after watching it.) We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready. It is merely a renamed version of the Netflix DVD website, but with the addition of video games. You won’t have to do anything special if you subscribe to our DVD by mail service.

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that distinctive red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be the same for many of you. We’ll also return to marketing our DVD by mail service, with its amazing selection, now with the Qwikster brand.

Some members will likely feel that we shouldn’t split the businesses, and that we shouldn’t rename our DVD by mail service. Our view is with this split of the businesses, we will be better at streaming, and we will be better at DVD by mail. It is possible we are moving too fast – it is hard to say. But going forward, Qwikster will continue to run the best DVD by mail service ever, throughout the United States. Netflix will offer the best streaming service for TV shows and movies, hopefully on a global basis. The additional streaming content we have coming in the next few months is substantial, and we are always working to improve our service further.

I want to acknowledge and thank our many members that stuck with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully yours,

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

Qwikster? Really?

Hamlet3145 · Post by **Hamlet3145** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:47 am

Holy crap. They are panicking.

I throw up in my mouth a little bit as I type this but "SyFy" may, possibly, be a less lame name than "Qwickster."