Netflix is raising its prices:
Netflix is raising two of its pricing tiers for US subscribers beginning next month, Mashable reports. The standard tier, which allows subscribers to watch on two screens at once, will be bumped up from $9.99 to $10.99 per month. The premium tier, which is available in Ultra HD and allows users to watch on up to four screens, will go up from $11.99 to $13.99. The Basic $7.99 per month plan will remain the same.
“From time to time, Netflix plans and pricing are adjusted as we add more exclusive TV shows and movies, introduce new product features and improve the overall Netflix experience to help members find something great to watch even faster,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge.
It’s a little awkward that they’re doing this right as they’ve dropped a couple of popular shows (30 Rock and… something, can’t remember what, but I’ve heard complaints), but they’re often losing (and adding) shows. And they’re slated to lose Disney Stuff soon, so there is probably no best time to pull off this bandaid. Might as well get it over with.
It’s still a pretty good deal, though, all things considered. The standard level price is still cheaper than Hulu, the other main streaming-network-shows service. It’s also cheaper than HBO, the biggest original-programming streaming service rival. (It is more expensive than Showtime-Starz-Cinemax, however.) Netflix right now is straddling the line between being a general content vault (Hulu’s domain) and an original programming service (like HBO) and seems to be in the general process of a transition from the former to the latter once it has ramped up production of enough original content. My advice to people who want to see familiar or better yet nostalgic programming is to go with Hulu, and original programming to go with Netflix. That’s where things are.
But if you’ve Cut the Cord, it’s all pretty much worth it. Even if you’re using a slim cable service, it’s probably something you want to do. You can get Sling/Vue/etc and Netflix and Hulu and other service and still save a whole bunch of money even with this modest price hike.
I’m not sure at what point that ceases to be the case. If they went up another three or four dollars I would probably go from Netflix+Hulu to Netflix or Hulu, doing one six months of the year and the other for the other six months. That’s one of the liabilities with Netflix’s model: You can get it for a few months, get caught up on everything, then cancel. Hulu is in a slightly better spot because it’s more of the go-to if your mind says “Hey, I remember that TV show Silk Stalkings, I should catch an episode!” which is more likely to happen sporadically and makes it nice to have Hulu twelve months of the year. This will become a bigger issue from Netflix if they do become more of an HBO and less of a Hulu.
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6 Responses to Netflix Is Still A Good Deal
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It’s a good deal, until the whole system fragments and various content-creators (Disney being the first, apparently) pulls their stuff from Netflix and creates their own paid streaming service….and then we’ve got something like the “cafeteria plan” cable everyone says they want, but find ourselves faced with “There’s one show on that service I really like, is it worth $12 a month to watch it?”
I dunno. I contemplated getting Netflix earlier this fall but after hearing of the Disney departure, and also after reading that there are very few older (like, TCM older) movies on there….maybe not.
At this point I’m more prone to buy dvds of movies I really like and know I want to rewatch than to subscribe to streaming services. (I do have Amazon Prime free, but they seem to have not a huge amount of what I would want for free)
We have bare-bones cable, but I frequently switch things up by finding deals. We were cord cutters for years. Had an incredible mobile broadband deal–originally $35 month eventually rising to $55 a month, but that company went belly up. Until then, we got by with Netflix and Amazon à la carte.
Comcast charges only $15 more for internet & basic cable with HBO versus stand-alone 25mps internet, so we’ve got minimum cable included, while continuing with Netflix and now Amazon Prime.
Most recently, I’ve been testing DirectTVNOw, and may drop cable again. For $35 month, it delivers network TV and an expanded package of cable channels. And you can add HBO and Showtime for $5 each.
Even with that, we still find most of our programming on Netflix and Amazon, so we’ll stick with those two.
My wife has whatever comes with the basic Amazon prime package, which means I have it, too, but neither of us uses it. Not for any reason, but just because we haven’t gotten into it. Instead, we use broadcast TV and Netflix for almost everything. For the past couple months, I’ve paid for HBO online (via Roku) in order to see a few shows that while I could seem them on Netflix on DVD’s, are easier to watch with the HBO. I’ll probably cancel HBO soonish, thought.
When we got rid of cable, it was $60/month for us.
For two or three hours of Cartoon Network.
You know, if Cartoon Network did a thing where you could just watch stuff like Kwiki Koala and Wacky Races and Super Harlem Globetrotters on demand, they’d make a kabillion dollars.
I’m irritated at over-the-air Cartoon Network right now. I don’t know what the deal is with their scheduling but apparently (a) someone on the staff really, really, really loves “Teen Titans Go!” and also (b) the on-screen schedule provided by the cable company (and I presume, originating from CN) often does not match up with what is actually been shown.
Even Boomerang, which used to be good, is not as good any more.
But I think that’s the lot of every cable channel: to start out showing good stuff and then sink to drek, which people still watch because they’re paying for it and they gotta watch SOMETHING….and so every channel becomes endrekified.