Netflix Raises Its Price By 60%

Sites include Netflix.com . Published on September 5th, 2011. Written by Anthony West.

The day of reckoning for Netflix is here. It was July of this year that Netflix announced plans to hike fees by a steep 60%, and at the time of the news, more than 2 million subscribers said they would quit Netflix.

Well, on the first of September the price hike took effect, and Netflix and its investors are waiting anxiously for the reaction. The ‘unbundling’ of services and prices means subscribers will now start paying more for DVD rentals and streaming content. The new pricing system means that the bundled service which used to cost $9.99 a month will now cost $15.98. If subscribers want to rent a DVD it will cost them $7.99 per transaction. That same movie will cost the same $7.99 streamed.

Subscribers on the combined plan who don’t want to absorb the new price hike will have to switch to either a streaming only plan, or DVD rental plan.

It’s probably too early to tell what the effect of the hikes will be; this might have to be judged in a few months. In any case, Netflix will hurt, not least because 60% is too big a jump for a service that used to cost $9.99. Many people simply won’t be able to afford it.

Netflix probably thought long and hard about raising the prices; if after all the fuss made by subscribers, they chose to stick with it; they should deal with the consequences.

Are you sticking with Netflix or are you jumping ship? Share your thoughts in the comments below.