Jul 31 2011
Netflix Turnaround
It wasn’t too long ago that I was a HUGE fan of Netflix. It was a company that could do no wrong in my eyes. While I was hooked on the convenience of their basic service – DVDs by mail – I also admired their pricing model(I was getting 8-10 DVDs for the price of 3 rentals at Blockbuster) , their selection(especially when it came to older movies and TV sitcoms), their fantastic service(i.e. the ease with which I could change the rental plan or even cancel subscription) and their constant upgrades to their service(like the addition of streaming movies). But some recent changes have changed my feelings towards the company.
In the DVDs-by-mail service, the biggest issue earlier was that movies that didn’t ship on their release date went into a ‘Long Wait’ mode and it took a while to finally get those movies. But some careful management of the queue and a little thought about when to return watched DVDs made this less of an issue for me. But a bigger issue was the deal Netflix made with the big production studios, wherein they got the movies 28 days after the movies were released on DVD. This covers almost 80% of the movies I watch and so I am forced to watch movies a month after they are available for home viewing. Worse, the DVD that comes after a month is an abridged version that has only the movie. No special features and in the last 2 movies I saw, Sanctum and Battle: Los Angeles, no chapter listing on the menu either. All we get is a message asking us to purchase the Blu-ray disc if we want the additional features!
Netflix’s streaming service is definitely in its infancy since the selection is a rather small percentage of the company’s DVD collection. And though the ‘delayed-DVD deal’ was primarily to get more movies from those studios streamed, these are mostly older movies. The streaming service has helped me see some movies – mostly foreign – that I wouldn’t otherwise have seen but so far, I have relied exclusively on DVDs to see movies that I really looked forward to. All the kinks in the streaming service haven’t been ironed out either. There have been instances when the service was down(though Netflix did offer a discount on their fees when the problem occurred) and I have seem the message “the title is not available for instant viewing” pop up right in the middle of viewing the title!
The aforementioned issues have been there for a while but it was the recent pricing change that made me focus on them. Netflix split the DVDs-by-mail and streaming into separate services with separate pricing. This leads to a big bump in prices($5 for me, for the 2-DVDs-out-at-a-time plan).
With higher prices for the DVDs-by-mail service, the new plan will offset some of Netflix’s big investment in online streaming and is in line with the company’s strategy to move to streaming only and phase out – or reduce – the mail order part of their business. But with so many complaints about other parts of their service, the pricing increase has been implemented at a bad time and will lead many loyal members to think about enrolling in only 1 service or quit Netflix altogether. I know I am.
10 responses so far
Well said. They apparently also took a lot of good movies from the streaming service – I know the Prestige was there, now it isn’t. I really don’t understand why they should be taking away movies from the online version once they get it.
I got an email from Blockbuster, (nice ’sandhula sindhu paadara’ technique) promising customers that they will never jack up prices by 60% etc.
Closing of Blockbuster stores was a huge advantage for Netflix but for people like me who still rent out aathi kaalathu DVD’s from the library, Netflix rising its prices isnt too welcoming
I am like one of Netflix’s founding member! I just realized the price hike after reading this blog!!! I used to have 3 DVD’s at a time plan but I realized I held on to 3 movies one time for over 5 months without returning it because I didn’t have time to watch them like I used to!!! I used to watch 40 – 50 movies a month!!!! Anyway I switched my plan to streaming only for few months and I shared the password with few of my friends (3 people can stream movies at the same time on one account!) who has ROKU. I loved the streaming service in the begining because lot of TV shows were on it and some newer films. Now I don’t see them for streaming!
I don’t think I will cancel netflix but I may downgrade to stream only for $7.99 and stick to Redbox for newer releases! Few studios are not releasing their new films to REDBOX and NETFLIX until 28 days later!
it’s interesting to me that in the age of bittorrent so many people are shelling out (more) money to netflix.
I dropped Netflix like a hat…a 60% price hike is just unacceptable (it’s not like they have everything on streaming..If they did I probably would have stayed)….
Balaji, on an unrelated note, I finally caught “Aadukaalam”…i liked it a lot except for the love story (seemed forced in just to make the movie more commercial and to put in the AMAZING songs)….i’m aware Dhanush won the National Award but imo the guy who played his jealous mentor owned that movie!….if he won it would have been a better choice (or Vikram for Raavanan)…Dhanush did a good job and all but I def. thought he was upstaged in the movie….
Also saw “Aaranya Kaandam”…wonderful movie and is def. the Tamil/Indian movie to beat this year…probably the ONLY indian movie to not make a single concession to commercial dictates (star casting, comedy, sentiments, songs, expositional dialogue, etc.)…that being said, I had two small issues with it..the first was the casting of Jackie Shroff…i know that they had a hard time getting stars to do that role but I’m sure they could have found a good unknown Tamil actor..perhaps from the stage…the second was the kid swearing so much at his dad (I relied on the subtitles…maybe they are exaggerated?)…I just didn’t buy it…but again, I have a feeling the subtitles exaggerated the swears….
I also thought Yuddham Sei was TREMENDOUS…on par with “Aaryanya Kaandam”…wish you had given it at least 3 stars!…what did you think knocked it to 2.5?…of course, the song was forced in but that was probably to get people to see it
@ Vimal. With regard to jealous mentor in ‘Aadukalam’ even though his acting was good, his voice was dubbed by Radharavi. I remember Radha also loosing out National Award for “Mudhal Maryathai” because of the same reason.
EO, yeah I’ve noticed that too. streamed movies apparently have expiration dates when they’re taken off the service. that was a point I missed.
meera, yes I belong to that club too. and there have been many times where I’ve had a movie on ‘Long Wait’ on Netflix & then found it @ the library.
Vince, I’m a longtime member too & I’ve changed my plans sometimes also. I was on the 3 DVD’s at a time plan first, then 1 at a time after I had kids and now its 2 at a time since they’ve grown up a bit. I’m also thinking of trying out the Blockbuster Express kiosk in a nearby store & if that works well, I may also sign up for only the streaming service.
killer, I use torrent to get Tamil films but probably since english movies are easily & legally available, I’ve never used torrent for them.
Vimal, glad u caught up on some good movies. On Aaranya Kaandam, the subtitles were definitely much more racier than the actual dialogs. I for one didn’t think the kid’s conversations with dad were out of line. On YS, I just felt the 2nd half was cliched and was a letdown after the superb first half.
Arvind, didn’t remember that. thanx!
Aravind,
Thanks..didn’t know that either…But I remember Shobana won a National Award for “Manichitra Thazhu” but she didn’t dub for that movie (or any of her movies)…that being said, I think it’s a good policy to require actors to dub in order to get an award…always found the concept of using someone else’s voice wierd