Unimportant Rant about people upset at Netflix

For those who aren't in the know, as of Sept. 1, Netflix is raising their prices. The cost of DVD rental has gone up and getting the rights to stream movies has always been a little pricy. Now, they are separating out their DVD rental service and streaming service. If you just want one or the other, you can get it cheaper. Their current premium deal is about 19$ a month. This gives you 3 DVD's at a time and unlimited streaming. This is damned cheap, in my opinion. It's less then the price of two movie tickets. Under the new pricing scheme if you want both it's 24$ a month. If you want to split up because you think the streaming or DVD's suck, streaming is 8$ and DVD's start at 16$.

I have no problems with people who are revisiting the issues and deciding if they want to pay for the service. That is what they should be doing. What I don't understand is why are people getting pissed off? “Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old; and when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.” The current generation has no issue with paying 10-15$ for one movie ticket. Yet, Netflix splits their services and raises their prices to, at worst, 30$ a month and it's the end of the world. That price is dependent on how many DVD's you want out an any given time. 30$ gives you 4 DVD's and unlimited streaming, 24$ is 3, 20$ is 2 and 16$ is 1. So, depending on your choices, your prices might go down.

DVD's should cost more the streaming. Streaming movies to multiple sources isn't that much more expensive once you have the rights to stream the movie at all. Streaming to one is about the same, cost wise, as streaming to many. DVD's on the other hand, are more expensive. You are limited by how many physical copies you have, you have to pay cost of shipping, storage fees for where the DVD's sit when they are not being loaned out, replacing them, care and cleaning, etc. That costs more then streaming and now those costs are being reflected in the price and not an unreasonable price at that.

I think splitting up the services is a great idea. Not everyone uses both. I do and am happy to pay for both, because it's worth it to me. However, many people consider the streaming to be crap and never use it. Just as many people never get DVD's and just use the streaming. For these people the deal is actually cheaper. All you have to pay for is the service you use, rather then both.

I might even go up to 30$ for that extra movie, but I haven't decided yet. Netflix is a business. It's job is to make money. They have no moral obligation to keep their prices at the same rates forever. If you don't like it, drop the service. You are not owed cheap entertainment. It's movies. It's not food, medication or housing. You can live without Netflix. If you can't afford or do not want to pay for the service, there is a public library near you that will give you books, movies, and music, for what you've already paid for in taxes and you pay those taxes anyway whether you use the service or not.