Today, Netflix unveiled new plans that will be pushed to all customers as of September 1. Today, I pay $9.99/month and get 1 DVD home at a time with unlimited access to Netflix’s streaming library. It’s admittedly a great bargain, but the new plans are pretty radical.
Effective September 1st, I have the option of choosing 1 DVD at home at a time, OR unlimited streaming for $7.99/month, a savings of $2/month. However, if I want to continue my current plan with both features, I have to pay that $7.99/month twice, for a total of $15.98. That’s a monthly increase of $6/month for the exact same level of service that I’m currently enjoying.
The really tragic thing about this is that Netflix obviously thinks their streaming selection is worth the same amount of money as their DVD selection. I’ve been a subscriber for years and I can tell you for a fact that it’s not. Their streaming selection currently consists of mostly older flicks, along with a bunch of movies from smaller studios. It’s great when you’re looking for something new and random to watch, but it’s nowhere near a stand-alone service.
Of course, Netflix could surprise us all with some heavy content announcements in the next month and a half…..but I’m doubtful.
I’m still debating, but I’m fairly certain we will be dropping the DVD part of our plan and will stick with just the streaming. I know that sounds like going against the previous paragraph, but the streaming plan gives me access on mobile devices, which is where we watch 95% of our content nowadays. Reading various reactions around the internet today, it seems Netflix has a large contingency of customers who are threatening to quit entirely.
Two years ago, if you wanted movies, Netflix was it. Today, though, you can download movies pretty much anywhere. Google just pushed out an update to the Android Market that will offer movies, while HTC has its Watch app, Samsung has a movie service, and even Blockbuster is still around in the streaming world.
I know many of my readers are Netflix subscribers, so I’m interested to know: what will you do? Will you keep DVDs, keep streaming, keep both, or cancel altogether?
Ricky Cadden 
I’m weighing heavy on the canceling option. I have the same plan as you and in my household it was much more convenient because while my hubby & kids got to choose the dvd’s… I was content in my own little world with streaming.
I agree that I don’t feel their selection is worthy of this price HIGHjack, lol. But with all the other options out there… I think Netflix is going to take a backseat if not become non-existant in alot of households.
On another note… lol LOVE your new blog!! 😛