Netflix, I just can't quit you
For a break from all the debt ceiling debacle, I thought I would try to figure out what to do about my Netflix membership. As you may know, prices recently went up. Instead of $9.99 for unlimited DVDs (one at a time) and unlimited streaming video, it will soon be $7.99 for DVDs and another $7.99 for streaming. Not even a discount for having both!
I began my subscription with Netflix in June 2010. I wanted to see newer movies than were available on cable TV, we rarely rented movies and hadn't tried paying for premium films On Demand either. I opted for the least expensive plan, $8.99, and began watching several DVDs a month.
I didn't initially intend to stream anything, because my husband and I like to watch together, and that's too hard to do on a laptop. But I couldn't resist. There was too much available that I wanted to see. So I streamed to my laptop for a couple of months and then started looking around for a device to stream to my TV. I settled on the Sony SMP-100 and began watching a lot of great stuff.
The price went up $1 in January 2011. That seemed perfectly reasonable. But as I mentioned above, recently Netflix raised the price again by up to 60%. As a subscriber at the lowest level, I was hit by the highest increase and I was incensed. I promised myself I would terminate my membership before the new pricing went into effect.
For the past couple of weeks I have been studying my options. Streaming video from Hulu+ is the same $7.99 that Netflix is going to charge, but it doesn't have much of a movie selection. It's a lot more about the TV programming. BlockBuster has DVDs by mail, and they have a lot of good movies, but they are $9.99, $2 higher than the Netflix price. Other services like Amazon on Demand are charged by the individual program watched. That's certainly not cheaper. I could get Amazon Prime - apparently that includes streaming video.
In order to get Current TV, I had to upgrade my Comcast subscription. The new service has a lot more movie channels. We haven't even been streaming any Netflix lately, because there is so much available on cable of late. So maybe I could just do DVDs by mail. And if that's all I'm going to do, I guess I should stick with Netflix, since they're cheaper than BlockBuster.
But how can I give up streaming movies? It's really hard. There's so much there that I want to see.
So for $7.99 I can continue to enjoy my DVDs by mail. For another $7.99 I can continue to enjoy my streaming movies and TV.
Netflix, I just can't quit you. I can't really afford you on top of the Comcast upgrade, but I can't resist. And I'm angry at how you have played me, but I have to forgive you this time. But one more time, and it's over.