DC Tom Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I hate feeling like I'm geting gouged by a company that has attained near-monopoly status. Then switch to Amazon Prime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booster4324 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Ahhh Link Google, Amazon, Hulu and others have jumped into the fray -- putting studios in the power position. They want to be paid more for the content they're providing. That spells trouble for Netflix's streaming content costs. "Netflix has another year or two on most of these contracts, and then the game completely changes," says Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities. Once Netflix' audience exceeded the cap, the contract was null. Starz' catalog of Disney movies available for online streaming is on the verge of triggering a similar contractual cap, the newspaper reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrDawkinstein Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Ahhh Link So basically, Netflix is having to raise prices, and will have to raise them in the future, because they are NOT a monopoly... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsFanNC Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I got this email as well and will drop the mail in DVD option. I stream to PS3's on DSL and don't have any problems. In fact many of the movies on the PS3 stream in HD just fine. Amazon Prime video streaming is great too but need to do that by laptop connected to TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 So basically, Netflix is having to raise prices, and will have to raise them in the future, because they are NOT a monopoly... Damn monopolistic non-monopolies... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Avenger Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 Then switch to Amazon Prime. Looks like Amazon's content is amazingly thin..... I say that Netflix is a near-monopoly because the content library they built is by far the most extensive - kudos to them for building it - and they can use that as a pretty big hammer. The problem I have is that it affords them great power to make changes to plans and pricing like they just made - how soon until they raise prices and further limit how much you can consume? To be fair, I understand that this is not all Netflix - I know their content licensing costs are going to go up exponentially when their contracts with the studios go up. But their costs haven't grown exponentially yet and they're already jacking the prices up on the consumers. I really don't like where this is all going. Studios are going to demand huge money for their content and distributors like Netflix and Amazon are going going to have to fork over huge fees. In return they'll get exclusivity to content catalogs. In the end each one of these distributors will probably be charging far more than they are today and you'll have to subscribe to multiple services to get all the content you want - no one service will have it. In the end it's not going to be fun for us as consumers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob's House Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Stream Netflix. Rent/Buy from Zune (Xbox), Itunes (Apple TV) or Amazon (Roku) Never need to purchase a disc again. And there's always Red Box. If it weren't for the children's programming (my go to babysitter) I'd cancel the streaming too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 (edited) Got the email too. Not that upset. My entire plan is going up $5, actually $4.97, for the first time in 2 years. And I use the HECK out of this service. I might drop the disc plan, or drop down to one, as I rarely watch the discs. But the Streaming service is hands-down the best "monthly service" I have ever subscribed to. The price is good (still), and I watch it more than regular television. If it wasnt for sports and local stations (and that basic cable is included in my HOA fees), Id drop cable completely. And for as much as I use it, and the Internet in general, Ive still never had a problem with Comcast. All in all, I've been waiting for a big change for a while. Their business is booming, and still growing, so it was only a matter of time. But this is not as bad as I expected. Streaming is still Unlimited, and until that changes, I have no complaints. Im still very happy with Netflix and would recommend it to everyone. Great service. ----------------------------------------- Edit: I dont get the quality complaints on the Streaming. I just watched Red Cliff last night, for example, and it looked great. Some older movies or shows will be lower quality, but that is based on how they were originally shot/produced. I dunno, maybe Im just lucky, but my Streaming is basically HD... Same here. I am so happy with the quality of the streaming through my Roku box that I've been watching on my projector. The picture quality I'm getting is about on par with my HD Dish Network channels. My bluray player is getting up there and starting to get quirky, even after the firmware update. So I'm really tempted to pick up the very, very highly regarded Oppo player, which can stream Netflix and Hulu. That would allow me to have new titles in 1080p with Dolby 5.1 audio and older titles via streaming in 720p or whatever its in. I'm totally cool with that. I love having my Roku box in the bedroom so I can browse for good stuff to watch before bed, so that will work out great. I'm just really thankful I got a good 3 years of hassle free performance from my Sony BD player...a lot of people had trouble with the earlier models. As for Netflix, I'm keeping the streaming and the 3 out with bluray. I feel about it the same way Charlton Heston felt about guns. Edited July 15, 2011 by ajzepp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrDawkinstein Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 If anyone has trouble finding stuff to watch on Streaming, I recommend bookmarking this site... http://instantwatcher.com/ It polls Netflix and lists the popular streaming shows/movies. Found some things on here I had no idea were available on Streaming. My Instant queue is now at 200 titles. That's just titles, doesnt count the fact that the TV titles have 10-100 episodes under each (from Party Down to Kids in the Hall to Serenity to LOST to Top Gear UK, etc) I wish Netflix had a random, or shuffle option, where I could make a category of 10 or so TV show titles and it would just pick random episodes to play. Kinda like TV programming. Sometimes the biggest pain is deciding which particular episode to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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