Thursday, July 14, 2011

Stop Whining About Netflix, People

I don't usually comment on current worldly events, especially business news (since business news is sort of my job). But all the hoopla about Netflix's recently-announced price increase has me rolling my eyes and wanting to smack a bunch of people around.

Seriously. Wasn't that unlimited streaming part icing on the cake for all of us ... only two years ago? And now they're asking us to pay for that icing, on top of the price we'd initially been happy enough to apply to just DVDs.

I don't blame them for making this move. Streaming costs money: server space, bandwidth, and (I'm guessing) cutting financial deals with your internet service providers so that the bandwidth you're using for the streaming doesn't show up in your internet bill. (Though knowing ISPs, they'll probably end up charging for it, anyway.)

As for DVDs: that probably costs even more in overhead. They need to pay the rent on the mailing centers where they house the DVDs, the salaries of the people who handle and file them away, the bulk rate costs for using USPS. This service isn't free for them to deliver. Why do you expect it to continue to be practically-free for you to get?

Most people (like myself) will probably just drop down to the one part of the plan they use the most. In fact, I haven't used the DVD portion for over a year, so this price change is just prompting me to do something I should have done long ago. In the end, this is going to save me money.

What's really funny is the people I've seen crying about this price hike the most are also the ones who indiscriminately internet post about all the money they've spent in other areas of their life: the latest iJunk toys, the trips to Giants games every week, the shows watched on HBO. You have money for all of that, but you can't find room in your budget to spend an extra $6 a month on unlimited access to video entertainment?

You should be ashamed of yourself. Throwing a hissy fit over something like this just shows you up to be one of the worst examples of a narcissistic, self-entitled American with First World problems. Get over it, and either shell out the $6 or cancel your account. You don't need to make a gods-damned internet petition about it, collecting ALL CAPS comments. There are plenty of other options out there.

Now go forth, children, and bitch about something worth bitching about. Like the extension of tax cuts for the rich, or how horrible "Carmageddon" is going to make the life of the average L.A. resident this weekend.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

they definitely want people to switch to streaming only (and want the content providers to do that too!)

i made the switch to streaming only a while back because I just never bothered with the dvd returns and felt an odd responsibility to watch what I rented, even if I wasn't in the mood.

very happy with streaming only. If I NEED to watch something else, it's only a $1 from redbox.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it's really not a bad deal; it's just the appearance of a 60% price hike that makes people rage. That said, I'm going to only be going with steaming henceforth.

I think Netflix would do better to offer a "$8 each or $13 for both" plan; they'd probably maintain more of their revenue that way. *shrug*