Netflix is restructuring its pricing and subscription model. The DVD rental and streaming video services have been split up into two separate services. Gone is the $9.99 per month combo package. Each service will now be offered separately for $7.99 each. Therefore, the combo package will now cost $15.98, an increase of $5.99. Netflix subscribers have until September to restructure their plans.
The changes have caused mixed reactions. Some users are up-in-arms, complaining bitterly across the Internet and threatening to cancel their accounts and seek alternative services, while still others are more philosophical about the change, shrugging their shoulders at the $5.99 price hike, and accepting it as an inevitable cost for a still-emerging new media model. I am of the latter opinion (though I rarely use the DVD service anymore and will probably drop it). I cut the cord on my cable television service last year and now live on Netflix streaming. I will accept the new pricing scheme because I support the service, the a la carte style of media delivery, rather than the 100 channel packages (stuffed with commercials and other unwanted programming) offered by my local cable service. And until my local cable company offers some kind of streaming service (wink wink), I will continue to support and utilize Netflix.
