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Netflix Announces New Plans, Splits Streaming And DVD, Raises Prices On Combination Subscriptions

Things just got really interesting in the land of Netflix.

Netflix has announced that they will be offering two brand new tiers of subscriptions for their service, and have decided to change the playbook.   The company will now offer tiered subscriptions for both physical and streaming sides of their service, but not the pair together.

Yup, that means from here on out you’ll have to pay for both a DVD subscription as well as a streaming subscription, or choose one or the other.   Prices start at $7.99 for the streaming service, and the same price point for unlimited DVDs, with one out at a time.   Prices increase from there. Now, there is an option for you to get both streaming and mail order discs, but it will cost you.  The company offer the option of getting both unlimited streaming and unlimited discs (one at a time), but you’ll have to pay $15.98, or the cost of the two subscriptions combined.

Now, response so far to this news has been interesting.   Some people have said that they are now going to be on the hunt for a new service, while others think that this has absolutely no effect on Netflix what so ever.   Personally, I find this news to be really shocking.   As a fan of the company, I love having the ability to stream and also get a physical copy under one plan.   Now, for $16, that isn’t going to happen.   I can’t justify spending that much on a service, when Hulu has most of the films that I’d want physical copies of anyways.   I think the door to the throne of the subscription film renting world just cracked open a tiny bit.

Source Netflix

Joshua Brunsting

Josh is a critic, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, a wrestling nerd, a hip-hop head, a father, a cinephile and a man looking to make his stamp on the world, one word at a time.

7 comments

  • 1 BD + streaming went up from $11.98 to $17.98. OUCH. That’s a HUGE price increase. I’ll be canceling Netflix come September 1st. I’ll just stick to Hulu and go back to pirating. 

  • Agree, this is going to push a lot of people back to pirating, I think. Netflix just doesn’t have the streaming catalog in place yet to let me completely drop my physical disc queue, but I can pretty easily find most of that content elsewhere (usually via less than legal avenues). Not that I intend to do that, of course (*cough cough*) but it’s there.

  • Netflix (and internet streaming of any kind generally) are a poor man’s choice anyway. Blu-Ray is the only way for true film connoisseurs.

  • This got me to rethink my Netflix subscription in light of Hulu+ and the fact that my TV plays Amazon video-on-demand (which offers a Netflix-like library of streaming media for free if you are an Amazon Prime member).

    So I am canceling Netflix next month, going with Hulu+ and saving $1/month!