Netflix promised a price hike and today, they delivered! For those who wish to enjoy both the streaming content from Netflix’s website, and the option to send away for DVD rentals, the cost is substantially higher than it was.
As Deadline pointed out, Netflix’ new price plan went into effect today. The combo-platter that was their DVD and Streaming option is now up from $9.99 to a minimum of $15.98/month for the cheapest option (among those that include both Streaming and DVD by mail).
Netflix doesn’t make it easy to see the price options on their site if you aren’t logged in. While their one-month free membership is available from the home page, I wasn’t able to see the price options for Unlimited Streaming and DVD until I logged in and went to my own account options.
Unlimited Streaming+ 1 DVD out at-a-time - $15.98 a monthUnlimited Streaming+ 2 DVDs out at-a-time - $19.98 a monthUnlimited Streaming+ 3 DVDs out at-a-time - $23.98 a monthUnlimited Streaming+ 4 DVDs out at-a-time - $29.98 a month
A while back, I would’ve said that Netflix’s price increase was justified, given the streaming content they offered and were regularly adding to their collection. While Netflix continues to make new content available (one of the biggest recent additions includes the first few seasons of AMC’s Mad Men), other shows have either been pulled, or else cut down. For example, I’m only seeing three episodes of Starz' Spartacus available by Netflix Streaming. The Gods of the Arena DVD set is due out soon, which might explain limiting the number of episodes, in an effort to “tease” viewers and hopefully entice them into buying the DVD (or upgrading their membership to rent the other discs). If that’s the case, the partial season thing seems like a fairly bogus gimmick if you ask me. If that’s not the case, then what gives? Who wants to only watch part of a show? And if so, what are the odds that the episodes offered are the ones you want to watch?
I guess you could argue that some Spartacus is better than no Spartacus at all, but if I’m being pushed the buy the DVD set, it’s making me less inclined to want to keep Netflix at all. This price increase doesn’t affect me directly as I’m not currently on the DVD-by-mail plan, but it definitely gives me cause to re-evaluate Netflix as a monthly expense.
