Netflix, I'm Warning You!

Apparently, Netflix is going to do something every other month to piss me off. It started in July with Party Down being removed. Then, in September, they took away the "Friends" feature (which isn't a feature that let's you watch Friends ad nauseum or substitute the Friends cast into any movie you're watching). Now, they are increasing prices.

In theory, I don't have a big problem with this. I use Netflix pretty much every day of the month, be it DVD or Instant View. Clearly, I'm getting my money's worth. However, the reasoning is so incredibly flawed that it reeks of bad business.

I've long been impressed that Netflix shifted from each plan plus 100+ hours of streaming (or whatever the plans had) to each plan with unlimited streaming without increasing prices. It was a great way to get people watching streaming content without making them pay for something they may not use. Now, they are forcing all customers to pay more for this service even if they don't/can't use it without offering a DVD-only option. This is just the start of the problem.

Netflix, apparently fashioning itself as a streaming provider over DVD provider, thinks that it offers enough quality on Instant View that it can do this without pissing off customers. For example: I have 381 films in my queue (with and additional 42 unavailable on either DVD or Instant View) and 112 are available on Instant View. That's about 3.5 times as many DVD options that streaming. Taking into account that I stream though my Nintendo Wii where the quality is definitely below DVD quality and I can subtract another 11 that I will only watch on DVD because I want the complete visual experience intended.

The only time I use Instant View is when I don't have a DVD at home. Usually, this falls on the weekend or Monday. Instant View has been great to watch The X-Files and some other shows, but most of what it offers doesn't interest me. And, there's always the risk of something being removed from Instant View (like Party Down).

This news comes at a particularly unfortunate time in my relationship with Netflix because I'd already been considering bumping my account down from 3 DVDs out to 2 for financial reasons. I decided not to because the difference wasn't all that huge. But now that the difference is $5 instead of $3, or $10 instead of $8 (for the 1 DVD level), I really have something to consider.

Many people are complaining about the lack of access to new movies on DVD and Instant View, but clearly those people were content to wait three months for the movie to come out on DVD. They can wait a little longer. The real issue to me is taking advantage of the customers who legitimately love movies and not understanding that there are still people who value things other than convenience.