Blu-ray News
Netflix Raising Prices For Blu-ray Disc Renters
Posted by Kevin Kelly (kevinkelly@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 23, 2008
I was at Best Buy yesterday, picking up a spare battery for my camera, when I overheard some people checking out the HD televisions. They had a billion questions, and the blue-shirted, khaki-pantsed kid couldn’t quite keep up with them, and just kept saying, “Well, HD is the best.” When they asked about Blu-ray players and DVDs and such, he said kept saying “Just get a Playstation 3,” even though they’d said they didn’t want that. When they started in on 1080p vs. 1080i vs. 720p, my head exploded.
Netflix is now saying that they’re going to raise the prices for Blu-ray subscriptions, which boggles the mind a bit. If you haven’t been living under a rock on an Amish farm somewhere, then you know that Blu-ray emerged triumphant over HD-DVD recently, paving the way to make things easier for consumers. Supposedly. Netflix themselves announced in February that they’d stop carrying the HD-DVD format, but this new price change is hard to comprehend.
Just how does Netflix decide that someone is a “Blu-ray subscriber?” Right now, you’re free to rent Blu-ray or regular DVDs from them, and it’s no secret that regular DVD has a much larger selection of titles than Blu-ray does, so won’t customers be renting from both camps? Even those with Blu-ray players? Or do you just rent one Blu-ray title, and then Netflix hits you with what amounts to a technology tax?
According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, since Blu-ray discs cost more money to purchase, they’re going to start charging a premium to accounts who rent Blu-ray discs. Now, I have to call shenanigans here. Yes, it’s true that those discs cost more, but we’re not talking an exorbitant amount here. Remember the good old days when video tapes used to be “rental priced”? Companies would charge $100 for a movie, so only video rental houses could afford it and then they’d make their money back by renting the same tape out 25 times or whatever.
Basically, with Netflix’s pricing plan, you rent a movie from them three times or so, and it’s paid for. All this harping about raising prices is just going to piss people off, and make it even more confusing to the end user who just wants to figure out which TV to get, which player to purchase, and what discs to rent from Netflix. If you throw one more monkey wrench into that already overbalanced machine, it’s going to blow up and kill the market with shrapnel.
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11 Comments
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
People may complain, but it makes sense from a business standpoint. It costs Netflix more $ to procure BluRay discs for their customers, so naturally that cost is passed down to those customers. Its comparable to the world of prostitution… escorts cost more than whores, even though the “service” they provide is similar. You pay for the premium. (And the full set of teeth, and absence of needle marks, etc.)
The real question here Kevin is if your head exploded yesterday, how did you write this story today?
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I agree with Rob, or did I miss the news that Netflix had become a non-profit operation? Plus, Blu Ray holds more content, you’d be getting more for your buck anyway.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
HA,HA me and my old fashioned dvds laugh at all the BluRay supporters.
Netflix is just passing the buck. Prepair to pay for that stunning resolution (big deal, yawwwn).
Btw I just picked up “Cloverfield” on dvd yesterday and I was watching it saying, “why does anyone need BluRay”. The film looked so clean it looked better than I remember it in the theatre.
I’ve got better things to spend money on than a passing fad that is BluRay.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I don’t see any BluRay users complaning…more quality more money.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Rob, I usually keep a spare or two around just in case something like this happens.
And madc, I’m a Blu-ray user who is complaining.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I’m complaining too. This is Bologna. But since Blu-Ray cheated to win the format war anyways, I wouldn’t mind seeing them take a blow from this. Blu-Ray held more data, but was harder to work with, used more code, was more expensive, and was less interactive with the web. HD held less data, was easier to work with, used less code, was less expensive, and had more interactivity.
Basically it was VHS vs Beta again, but Beta won this time. (Though actually the quality of projected picture is the same)
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Yeah Robert, BluRay sold the public out to the studios by imploying region codes and copying over-protection. The studios had no choice but to abandon HD. BluRay however won’t last more than say Laser discs did. IMO….
There’s some new technology coming that is going to enhance regular dvds.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Rumor on the street is also that Sony straight-up bought out Fox. Fox was in the middle and Sony paid them something like 6million dollars to give up on Blu-Ray. While to a huge studio, 6mil might not seem like a lot, but Fox knew that going one way or the other would kill a format, meaning they no longer had to produce three editions (DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray) or make HD/DVD double discs.
=(
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
If you don’t like the price, you are not required to purchase.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:24 am
I’m pretty happy to pay a bit more, if I’m renting something with a lot more content. Currently the only interest I actually have in Blu-ray is that it can hold practically an entire tv season on a single disc (ok, they may have to push it to two with extras) and if I can get 8 hours out of one before I have to go all the way to the other side of the room to change disc, I’m content to pay. However for regular movies where I doubt I’ll bother with extras anyway? PAH!
May 14th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Well I for one don’t think its right. I mean why didn’t they charge more at the beginning? All these places get greedy. Owell I might cancel my subscription if they actually do this or switch to the lowest plan if they even will still have one. Good while it lasted I guess. These palces just ened to get rid of DVD’s and get on the bluray bandwagon then we could have this problem. DVD’s are so outdated and look horrible its not funny. Its like VGA compared to SuperVGA. It just doesn’t stack up!