The days of $7.99 Netflix may be over....

[rockymtnhigh]

I figured they would go up to 9.99 in the next year, as their content costs keep rising

I won't complain if it is $9.99. Much beyond that however, and I am not certain it is worth it, when Amazon prime is basically costing me nothing, since I get prime for shipping, and video is a bonus. BUT of course, I would not want to drop it until after House of Cards.

 

[oldengineer]

My cableco has a 250G/mo limit on downloads from 5PM-midnight. It's $1/G if you go over. With net neutrality about to be gone after last week's ruling we may soon look back to the good old days when the Dish bill was only $150.00.

 

[Kraven]

Mo' Money Mo' problems.

 

[Darrell S]

I only get Netflix when they have an original series I want to see. For example, when House Of Cards starts next month,I will sub for a month and then cancel. I usually hit the cancel button as soon as I sub,so I won't forget and let them auto-renew me. I can't find enough movies that I want to watch to justify a constant sub.

 

[Gobucks]

This doesn't surprise me at all and I've been saying it for over a year now. As these people who think they have it all figured out by cutting the cord and watching their shows online are going to see some price increases. Eventually it won't be as great of deal as everyone thinks.

The thing is everyone is different. Not everyone watches TV and has 3 or 4 DVR's like some of us. I have a friend who cut the cord has Netflix and get Justified, Walking Dead and a couple others on Amazon. He has saved so much money over the past few years and as a bonus with Amazon he owns the digital rights to all the seasons of the TV shows he watches. He has a TIVO for OTA. If I didn't love sports and our Hoppers so much I would give it a shot.

I agree prices will go up but no way will it go up like cable and satellite does. So basically he has ala carte now. He uses redbox for new movies also.

 

[jagowar]

The thing is everyone is different. Not everyone watches TV and has 3 or 4 DVR's like some of us. I have a friend who cut the cord has Netflix and get Justified, Walking Dead and a couple others on Amazon. He has saved so much money over the past few years and as a bonus with Amazon he owns the digital rights to all the seasons of the TV shows he watches. He has a TIVO for OTA. If I didn't love sports and our Hoppers so much I would give it a shot.

I agree prices will go up but no way will it go up like cable and satellite does. So basically he has ala carte now. He uses redbox for new movies also.

Agreed.... Sports are the only thing keeping me with a tv subscription. Even still I use netflix more than watching livetv. The superhd quality is better, the whole season/series is available (even if they don't have the most current season for any show still on the air), etc. Its just a better experience to a dvr imo. Of course there are still some shows I can't wait for them to get on netflix that I dvr but its primarily a sports only thing for me.

 

[king3pj]

The thing is everyone is different. Not everyone watches TV and has 3 or 4 DVR's like some of us. I have a friend who cut the cord has Netflix and get Justified, Walking Dead and a couple others on Amazon. He has saved so much money over the past few years and as a bonus with Amazon he owns the digital rights to all the seasons of the TV shows he watches. He has a TIVO for OTA. If I didn't love sports and our Hoppers so much I would give it a shot.

I agree prices will go up but no way will it go up like cable and satellite does. So basically he has ala carte now. He uses redbox for new movies also.

If I wasn't so into Tigers baseball I would be all OTA and streaming already. I would not be happy about having to wait a year to watch some of the premium stuff like Game of Thrones but I could do it. I would probably actually have my parents sign up for HBO and pay for it for them just so I could use HBO Go during that season. I already have a nice gaming PC hooked up via HDMI to my AVR and TV. I could easily turn that into an OTA DVR with no monthly fees and sling my Tigers games from my parents extra hopper. I could just do season passes on my Apple TV for the few cable shows like The Walking Dead that I'm still hooked on.

I am really going to think about it once my 2 year contract runs out but I still have have a year and 4 months to go on that front. When I bought my first house in April I signed up for Dish because I've had cable/satellite my whole life and just thought of it as something as standard as electricity. Now when I think about how much I actually watch that isn't available OTA I'm starting to realize that I'm paying for something I don't need. I kind of wish I would have just installed a big outdoor OTA antenna when I moved in and cut myself off right then. If I didn't have an ETF to pay I would probably start getting everything ready this weekend.

Edit: actually I might not even need an OTA antenna. I think I could probably just put a splitter on my the Charter line going into my modem and get ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, and CW to my PC in HD with QAM. I don't think I would get all the subchannels but I don't have those now with Dish anyways.

 

[Yespage]

As thousands more keep signing up for Amazon Instant Video expect their rates to increase over time as well. As their customer base increases so do their expenses. Don't forget that networks are going to want a piece of the pie when they see the amount of customers and revenue Amazon can pull in.

The Networks already have Hulu Plus... and the gouging of Sat and Cable providers.

Prices will always go up, but Amazon got into the game a little bit later, when costs for programming were already starting to inflate and no discs to deal with. Amazon already has a massive online set up, so I don't think the video service is going to tax them too much. And Amazon has a massive juggernaut of money from their actual site. Amazon really has the looks of trying become another Google, with the tentacles getting around.

Still, the one thing they don't have is sports. The only thing both saving and killing Cable/Sat. It'd be interesting if they made a play for Gamecenter or NFL Ticket.

 

[Gobucks]

Agreed.... Sports are the only thing keeping me with a tv subscription. Even still I use netflix more than watching livetv. The superhd quality is better, the whole season/series is available (even if they don't have the most current season for any show still on the air), etc. Its just a better experience to a dvr imo. Of course there are still some shows I can't wait for them to get on netflix that I dvr but its primarily a sports only thing for me.

If I wasn't so into Tigers baseball I would be all OTA and streaming already. I would not be happy about having to wait a year to watch some of the premium stuff like Game of Thrones but I could do it. I would probably actually have my parents sign up for HBO and pay for it for them just so I could use HBO Go during that season. I already have a nice gaming PC hooked up via HDMI to my AVR and TV. I could easily turn that into an OTA DVR with no monthly fees and sling my Tigers games from my parents extra hopper. I could just do season passes on my Apple TV for the few cable shows like The Walking Dead that I'm still hooked on.

I am really going to think about it once my 2 year contract runs out but I still have have a year and 4 months to go on that front. When I bought my first house in April I signed up for Dish because I've had cable/satellite my whole life and just thought of it as something as standard as electricity. Now when I think about how much I actually watch that isn't available OTA I'm starting to realize that I'm paying for something I don't need. I kind of wish I would have just installed a big outdoor OTA antenna when I moved in and cut myself off right then. If I didn't have an ETF to pay I would probably start getting everything ready this weekend.

Edit: actually I might not even need an OTA antenna. I think I could probably just put a splitter on my the Charter line going into my modem and get ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, and CW to my PC in HD with QAM. I don't think I would get all the subchannels but I don't have those now with Dish anyways.

If I was still single with no kids I would do the 6 months on and off deal. I would do Dish pause for 6 months and start it back when college football starts up. That way I could just use Amazon for the shows on cable I like and OTA for network stuff.

As a lot of us know its a whole different ballgame when you married with kids. My wife loves Discovery ID and a few others. So it serves us well to keep Dish at this time. We are really debating putting Dish on pause for the summer months. We don't watch much TV then. That would save us around $300 a year. Plus saving the $300 a year would take a huge chunk out of the every year increases on programming and fees.

 

[VegasVoomer]

Is this why Netflix stock is up over $50 per share, or 15% in today's trading??

I made A LOT of money over night with that. I was worried for a week or 2 watching it drop and was close to selling. I'm glad I didn't.

 

[jagowar]

If I was still single with no kids I would do the 6 months on and off deal. I would do Dish pause for 6 months and start it back when college football starts up. That way I could just use Amazon for the shows on cable I like and OTA for network stuff.

As a lot of us know its a whole different ballgame when you married with kids. My wife loves Discovery ID and a few others. So it serves us well to keep Dish at this time. We are really debating putting Dish on pause for the summer months. We don't watch much TV then. That would save us around $300 a year. Plus saving the $300 a year would take a huge chunk out of the every year increases on programming and fees.

The funny thing is my friends with kids all use netflix more than cable with the kids.... namely because they don't care about watching the newest episodes so netflix's vast collection of older kids shows works out better.

And what you are wanting to do is exactly what I am doing.... dropped down to Dish America until next September. But part of the problem here is the ridiculous equipment fees. I have a 3 room hopper/joey system and the equipment fees alone add $25 to my bill each month which imo is the real issue with cable/sat tv pricing, the programming costs really aren't that bad. But you can't easily put the equipment on hold for the summer months.... made even worse because every other service (netflix, hulu, google play, aereo, simple.tv) do not charge for each additional tv I have. Was really hoping the virtual joey would be done in a similar way but sadly that doesn't look to be the case.

 

[old corps]

If I wasn't so into Tigers baseball I would be all OTA and streaming already. I would not be happy about having to wait a year to watch some of the premium stuff like Game of Thrones but I could do it. I would probably actually have my parents sign up for HBO and pay for it for them just so I could use HBO Go during that season. I already have a nice gaming PC hooked up via HDMI to my AVR and TV. I could easily turn that into an OTA DVR with no monthly fees and sling my Tigers games from my parents extra hopper. I could just do season passes on my Apple TV for the few cable shows like The Walking Dead that I'm still hooked on.

I am really going to think about it once my 2 year contract runs out but I still have have a year and 4 months to go on that front. When I bought my first house in April I signed up for Dish because I've had cable/satellite my whole life and just thought of it as something as standard as electricity. Now when I think about how much I actually watch that isn't available OTA I'm starting to realize that I'm paying for something I don't need. I kind of wish I would have just installed a big outdoor OTA antenna when I moved in and cut myself off right then. If I didn't have an ETF to pay I would probably start getting everything ready this weekend.

Edit: actually I might not even need an OTA antenna. I think I could probably just put a splitter on my the Charter line going into my modem and get ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, and CW to my PC in HD with QAM. I don't think I would get all the subchannels but I don't have those now with Dish anyways.

The splitter thing with Charter won't work anymore Pat, at least it doesn't where I'm at--Montrose. I tried. All digital now.

Ed

 

[king3pj]

The splitter thing with Charter won't work anymore Pat, at least it doesn't where I'm at--Montrose. I tried. All digital now.

Ed

Too bad. That would be much simpler for me than trying to install an antenna on the roof and running a cable down 3 levels to the HTPC.

Edit: I actually just got some junk mail from Charter today saying that they can help with ETF fees if you switch. Depending on how much they will give me towards my $300 ETF and how long I have to stay with them to get that offer I might be doing all of this sooner than I thought. As far as I know, Charter doesn't require contracts for any of their services so I might be able to take them up on this offer and then cancel in a few months.

 

[Gobucks]

The funny thing is my friends with kids all use netflix more than cable with the kids.... namely because they don't care about watching the newest episodes so netflix's vast collection of older kids shows works out better.

And what you are wanting to do is exactly what I am doing.... dropped down to Dish America until next September. But part of the problem here is the ridiculous equipment fees. I have a 3 room hopper/joey system and the equipment fees alone add $25 to my bill each month which imo is the real issue with cable/sat tv pricing, the programming costs really aren't that bad. But you can't easily put the equipment on hold for the summer months.... made even worse because every other service (netflix, hulu, google play, aereo, simple.tv) do not charge for each additional tv I have. Was really hoping the virtual joey would be done in a similar way but sadly that doesn't look to be the case.

It's funny you say that about Netflix and kids. We have it set up so our daughter can watch Netflix. I love that with Netflix I can stream it on any TV and it's still $7.99. We had a stream going in our daughters room while we were watching The Avengers in the living room.

So I can see why the younger generation is going with things like Netflix and Hulu. A lot of them already have game consoles so no gouging on equipment fees. I did a search for virtual joey. It looks like no official price yet. If it's $7 bucks that will be sad.

 

[jagowar]

It's funny you say that about Netflix and kids. We have it set up so our daughter can watch Netflix. I love that with Netflix I can stream it on any TV and it's still $7.99. We had a stream going in our daughters room while we were watching The Avengers in the living room.

So I can see why the younger generation is going with things like Netflix and Hulu. A lot of them already have game consoles so no gouging on equipment fees. I did a search for virtual joey. It looks like no official price yet. If it's $7 bucks that will be sad.

Exactly... the streaming services don't care about milking you for extra tv's because there is no extra cost associated with providing the service there. Just pure greed by the established providers because outside the initial equipment charge there is no recurring cost to them to deliver service to multiple tv's.

And yes there is no official price but its all but confirmed to be very close to the joey price (making it useless to me). Had it been $2 or $3 per system or a $10 for as many virtual joeys as I want that would have been different but not if there is no incentive not to get the hardware joey.

I know this is off topic somewhat but I am hoping the sony playstation tv service ends up being good. Was just announced at ces and no real details yet but it will be delivered over ip on multiple screens so there is a chance they will not charge for each tv because I think that would spawn a bunch of companies (xbox, google, apple, amazon) to get in that game and truly put real pressure on the established providers to stop gouging their customers.

 

[Deadlocked]

Egad this is old ass news from back in December. Netflix is basically just going to be offering packages on how many users can stream at one time.

This article is taking that plus what "experts" are saying to scare people.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Scherrman]

Netflix, Hulu + and Amazon Prime could all double in price and their combined cost would still be cheaper than most cable/sat packages. And I hope you're not assuming that cable/sat packages won't go up in price either.

Now you're not making your comments because you're a Dish dealer now, are you?

Me being a Dish dealer doesn't sway my opinions, it just allows me more insight into the industry. I'm just saying this is how business usually goes. You start off small and keep costs low then as word spreads you get busier and busier. You need to hire more employees and need more business space so your expenses increase. With all the added expenses you need to raise prices some in order to cover costs and since you have such a great product your customers will understand and stay with you. All of a sudden it's 10 years later and you've become a huge business with millions of customers and your product now is $60 a month instead of the $10 you started out with.

I wasn't saying these businesses are bad and no one should cut the cord and go to them, I'm just saying that the more popular they get, the bigger they get, the more expenses they have and the more they will raise their rates. I myself am an Amazon Prime member and love it.

 

[Tampa8]

Netflix, Hulu + and Amazon Prime could all double in price and their combined cost would still be cheaper than most cable/sat packages. And I hope you're not assuming that cable/sat packages won't go up in price either.

Now you're not making your comments because you're a Dish dealer now, are you?

No he's not, he is a very fair poster.
The problem with your post is comparing those services with a package from DISH. First, to watch what I like it would take all those subscriptions, plus probably others to get the shows since they all have their own exclusives. And then, in many cases would have to pay per episode especially if I want to watch it within a reasonable time of the actual showing. Justified for instance is exclusive to Amazon, past episodes are free with a prime membership. However if you want this season's episodes, it will cost $1.99 each, or I have to wait until season 5 starts. That's approx $20 for one show not including the entrance cost to the service for a season. That is just one example of one show. Seems to add up fast already.

It will cost more than people think if they are trying to watch shows they watch now unless that number is a very few. Not even discussed is the pending increase in internet costs, or the slowing of the speed you may get. Scherrman's posts on this is spot on. Yes of course the carriers keep raising prices, but there actually are ways to cut back without losing much programming. That won't be the case with cloud services that can use no hardware beyond a computer or a Roku.

 

[king3pj]

Me being a Dish dealer doesn't sway my opinions, it just allows me more insight into the industry. I'm just saying this is how business usually goes. You start off small and keep costs low then as word spreads you get busier and busier. You need to hire more employees and need more business space so your expenses increase. With all the added expenses you need to raise prices some in order to cover costs and since you have such a great product your customers will understand and stay with you. All of a sudden it's 10 years later and you've become a huge business with millions of customers and your product now is $60 a month instead of the $10 you started out with.

I wasn't saying these businesses are bad and no one should cut the cord and go to them, I'm just saying that the more popular they get, the bigger they get, the more expenses they have and the more they will raise their rates. I myself am an Amazon Prime member and love it.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/21/netflix-q3-40-million-total/

Yes, but Netflix is no startup. They have been offering streaming since 2007 and they have 29.93 million paying US customers. They are over 40 million paying customers internationally.

 

[Tampa8]

Netflix is a very good service for some. But it is an add on, not a substitute for most people. Will that change? I guess time and costs of the internet and costs services like Netflix will help determine that. But bundling does save money whether people want to believe that or not. I believe for TV shows Amazon, Netflix, Itunes etc.. are going to have to come up with their version of packages if they are to replace traditional carriers.