Or you can go to Hulu.com or Crackel.com for movies
Posted on 07/13/2011 6:55:27 AM PDT by Dacula
Edited on 07/13/2011 8:26:55 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
SAN FRANCISCO
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
I ask fellow FReepers - what are alternatives to Netflix? I am going to cancel in protest.
Real life
Amazon has some video streaming - not as much as Netflix but that may change, now.
I am going to drop the streaming option. It was nice but the selection of movies is very limited.
I am canceling the streaming portion for now while I have cable and on demand (was going all netflix for 4 years - then got HBO and cable for “Game of Thrones”).
I will be saving money by just getting discs mailed.
They are pouring money into getting the rights to stream more and more movies - it only makes sense to separate out those costs to give more accurate customer options.
Just my 0.02$
Or you can go to Hulu.com or Crackel.com for movies
Yep - just got our notice this AM - knew there would not be a decrease in the fee regardless - if they streamed oldies, we’d cancel DVD service but NOOOOO! It’s expensive in Los Gatos and the CEO needs $$$ to give to Obummer....
Go streaming only. We did that last time they changed the rate structure. Their business is focused on streaming anyway at this stage. If you don’t do streaming, cancel and use Redbox. If you do use streaming keep that only, and go with Redbox for DVD rental. You can reserve specific movies on the redbox website or mobile apps before you go pick them up.
Yeah, I’m kind of ticked about this too. That’s a huge price increase — pretty close to 50%. It’s not going to sit well with most folks.
OT, but kinda related —
Is anybody else having a problem with HULU (free) not loading videos this morning??
The content and quality is not good enough yet, so I’ll probably drop the streaming as well. When “real” HD picture and sound are provided that can replace waiting for a snail mail Blu-Ray - I’ll bite.
I’m not sure if there is an alternative for both DVD rentals and streaming.
Blockbuster has a similar program for renting DVDs by mail, but it costs $11.99 a month. The good thing is they get a lot of the new releases almost a month earlier than Netflix, and if you live near a participating store, you can return your dvd to the store and select a new one up to 5 times a month.
I plan on cancelling too, but remember, it is not Netflix, it is the Studios that are driving this, and my cancellation is more a message to the studios than to Netflix, they are simply caught in the middle.
The studios have already delayed the availability of New Releases to Netflix by 30 days or more in some cases in hopes of driving sales of DVD’s during this initial window.
Late last year, Netflix reported that the fees they pay the studios rose from $229 million to $1.8 billion in the span of 3 months, and those costs continue to rise.
In short, if the studios want to discourage me from watching their product by extorting exorbitant fees from Netflix, I will play along and not watch. How often does Hollywood have to kill their golden goose before they learn their lesson?
After our email, we canceled everything but the streaming, but we like old movies. Red box is just down the street, new releases.
Got the email this morning. I’ve watched about all the old movies I wanted to anyway, and was just contemplating ditching Netflix, this makes it easy.
In contrast, I’ll drop the DVD option and keep streaming. Being able to watch something NOW is more used than 2-day turnaround on a couple discs at a time (which tend to sit unwatched). A few bucks extra for the disc option was OK, but not if they’re going to ratchet it up another $5 or so. There’s more than enough streaming to keep me & the kids happy. For the few times we adults actually sit and watch a full movie together, Redbox “what’s recent” for a buck and iTunes “_this_ movie _now_” for $2-5 trumps.
Real life
Yep. I never bundle anything for that reason - once the fish is hooked....And I don’t buy into the low cost introductory stuff - the price WILL go up after initial offer (oh, and they never tell you how much it will go up). I guess if I had money to burn, this wouldn’t be an issue but I, for one, can’t afford to play the game.
It’s still a lot cheaper than cable, and the rate hikes are mostly the fault of the media companies since they’re charging outrageous rates for rights to stream their shows/movies.
The streaming selection is getting much, much better, too.
yah...we got the e-mail yesterday informing us that we don’t need to do anything for our bill to double all by itself....it’s just like a Congressional pay raise....
I’ve never downloaded a movie from Netflix and probably never will, and there is no reason based on our customer history to double up on the charges for a service we have never used or asked for. But the onus is on us to straighten this out, and I’m inclined to make sure we don’t have anymore Netflix problems by cancelling Netflix entirely.
Yep. We rarely watch an actual DVD anymore. Keep the streaming, ditch the DVD-by-mail. Actually saves us money.
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