60% Price Hike for the Only Show in Town

Netflix burst onto the scene as the convienent, digital-age response to renting movies.  It was so successful in fact, it has all but rendered movie rental stores obsolete.

Apparently, now that they control the marketplace, Netflix is expanding their...prices for their services. 

The company's abandoning its $9.99 a month plan that enabled subscribers to watch unlimited video streams and also have one DVD out at a time sent via mail. The price for that combo service will jump to $15.98 as Netflix requires consumers to separately order unlimited streaming for $7.99 a month or 1-at-a-time DVD rentals for $7.99.

For 2 dollars less, you only get half the current service.  There isn't even a penny discount for having both packages.  How stingy!  I'm guessing that this is a way to curb those stone-age knuckle-draggers who still prefer getting their DVD's in the mail as opposed to streaming online.  I bet more people (who must choose between one service or the other now) will opt for the streaming service because it's seemingly a better deal.  Although, all I hear from subscribers is that the selection is rather limited, especially with television.

With streaming movies and e-readers making DVD's and DVD Stores as well as books and bookstores obsolete, it brings to mind the classic Twilight Zone episode, "The Obsolete Man".  We're not quite to the point of murdering people in so-deemed 'obsolete' professions, but dismantling entire industries for the sake progress...that doesn't seem very wise.

I always maintain that while computers and digital media has its place in society, we can't lose sight of the fact that we are human beings.  We don't live in cyberspace.  We live in the real world and therefore require things to touch and hold and interact with.

This is why I'm concerned that e-book sales were higher than hardcover books last year.

As for netflix, how does that affect us personally?  A 60% bump in price definetely dissuades me from signing up.  I'm sure others will grow tired up it as well.  This is the Obama economy after all.  We can't all jet off to foreign locales like the President does to make FLOTUS happy.

The leadership at Netflix has been itching to change their mantra all year.  It all started with a January blog post which was not well-received by netflix subscribers.

In a seemingly innocent 109-word blog post, Netflix director of product management Jamie Odell announced, "We're removing the 'Add to DVD Queue' option from streaming devices," suggesting that it was being done so that the company "can concentrate on offering you the titles that are available to watch instantly."

They are erradicating your options...but they are doing it for you--so you can watch titles instantly (which you already could do, just not on DVD now...that's all). 

They learned their lessons from Cass Sunstein well.  They tried to nudge us into their streaming-only philosophy and it failed.  They haven't quite shoved us yet, but now they've doubled down with their nudging to hit us where it hurts--the pocket book.

"That'll teach them!"