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As Blu-ray players and media continues to go down, the cost of adding Blu-ray to your Netflix subscription is going up. Again. Back in October of last year, Netflix implemented a $1 surcharge to customers who wanted to add access to Blu-ray rentals to their monthly subscription plan, saying the price hike was to cover the "significant cost difference" between Blu-ray and standard DVDs. Netflix called it a "pretty modest" surcharge at the time, but now you could be paying up to $9 extra per month to add Blu-ray to your plan.
"We’re committed to providing a high quality Blu-ray experience for our members who choose to add Blu-ray access, and in order to do that we need to adjust Blu-ray pricing. As a result, the monthly charge for Blu-ray access is increasing for most plans and will now vary by plan," wrote Jessie Teitz, Netflix's VP of marketing, in a blog post.
The Blu-ray surcharge breaks down as follows:
Teitz went on to explain that Netflix's Blu-ray selection has grown more than 60 percent in the past 6 months to over 1,300 titles, and that some Blu-ray discs are "substancially more expensive than standard definition DVDs - often as much as 30 percent more."
The new surcharge pricing goes into effect on the next billing cycle on or after April 27, 2009.
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neo1piv14
April 01, 2009 at 5:09am
I think they're having to raise rates because more people are having to use this type of service via digital distribution because of bandwidth caps. I mean, there's only so many bluray movies you'd be able to download before your internet got capped off, and while most people will never hit that cap, the fact that they now know about it means that a lot of people are going to go back to physical distribution. Just my two bits.
Pyrophorics
March 31, 2009 at 12:04pm
This is really weird.
DVD's are still in much higher demand. If nothing else, because people rent and rip bringing a quick turnaround to movies. Some people get almost 50+ DVD's in a month doing this. Since Blu-Ray burners and especially media are still too expensive, this is not feasible for Blu-Ray atm.
Meanwhile, Blu-Ray adopters ARE out there and while we do demand our HD, the format isn't as demanded as regular DVD's. So it's extremely confusing why they are always out-of-stock on all new release Blu-Ray movies. With possibly hundreds of thousands of subscribers that may be currently paying $1 extra, that is a lot of Blu-Ray movies to keep in stock.
They added the $1 fee to Blu-Ray months ago claiming it would help their turn around. Needless to say, it did not help one bit. So, not only was I paying $1 more but I was only old movies on Blu-Ray or crappy ones. I would get maybe 1 "new release" movie every month or two.
Now they are charging the $1 plus an addition 20% which I am sure will still do nothing.
Also, Blu-Ray movies have a slightly higher cost than DVD's but where bulk purchases are concerned the increased price is marginal. They don't see as huge as an expense as the charge they are relaying to customers. They are making a lot of profit off this extra charge.
This is also a hinderance for the HD world and is a major reason I will NOT be joining back with Netflix. As a matter of fact, I cancelled a couple months ago after the $1 charge and noticing it didn't help anything.
They also released a statement saying that they cater to new customers. Existing customers will ALWAYS (regardless of how much you are paying) get shafted. So with that in mind, the REAL question is ....
WHAT DO CUSTOMER REALLY GET FOR THEIR $1 + 20% BLU-RAY FEE? :/
This fee is to help provide more Blu-Ray movies and better queue times but if they are only catering to new customers we are essentially paying for nothing.
MeTo
March 31, 2009 at 11:20am
We just droped Blu ray. We can hardley ever get a blu ray movie we already pay the extra $1 thats fair.
Will not continue to pay the blu ray tax.
atomaweapon
March 31, 2009 at 9:45am
Yeah they sent me an email the other day saying they were raising the rates. Being as how I haven't ever rented a blu-ray disc, despite the fact I have a ps3, I canceled the blu-ray rentals. 4 extra bucks is pushing it.
horzo
March 31, 2009 at 9:38am
Considering I manage to squeeze 6-7 movies/month out of Netflix on the "one at a time" plan, the $12 I'll now be paying is still a hell of a deal.
Number Six
March 31, 2009 at 8:51am
As far as I can tell, my netflix subscription, which is the cheapo-one DVD/blue ray at a time, has not gone up. Still a lot better than Blockbuster for me.
-Six
VoodooChicken
March 31, 2009 at 8:39am
I've never joined Netflix, Redbox has been adequate for me for new titles. The price difference between buying a 2-disc DVD vs the Blu-Ray is around $5 MSRP, and in my case the difference averages $3. This is less than 17%, not %30. Comparing against available 1-disc rentals is another matter entirely. In my experience, I can either pay the $1 at Redbox (or free on Mondays) for new titles, or buy the damn thing at Fry's for almost the price of a rental for older titles. Netflix is blowing smoke.
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