It’s no question Netflix has revolutionized the way people watch movies and television shows.
Without Netflix, we wouldn’t have Hulu or the cable companies trying to improve their OnDemand and streaming services to compete.
Without Netflix, Blockbuster would most likely still exist.
For years, I’ve praised the by-mail company, both in print and on the radio, as well as convinced many friends and my family to sign up for the service.
DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming for ten bucks a month — it was practically a steal, and Netflix was raking in the dough.
However, all of this money and power has finally caught up to the red giant’s head, and consumers are going to be paying for it — literally.
With such a power hold on the industry, Netflix will be able to do whatever they want to their customers and easily get away with it.
I call it the Apple syndrome.
Last week, Netflix announced it would be splitting its current unlimited DVD/streaming plan up into two separate categories to “ensure a long life for our DVDs by mail offering,” according to the company’s blog.
Instead of offering unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming starting at $9.99, the two will be broken up into separate plans for $7.99 each.
That means if you want to keep your current service of DVDs/streaming, you now get to fork over 16 bucks a month.
That’s a 60 percent increase per month.
Netflix’s Jessie Becker explains in the blog post that when the company launched its unlimited streaming only service for $7.99 last November, there was still a high demand for DVDs (which is how the company started).
Becker says treating DVDs as $2 add ons to unlimited streaming “neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want