Netflix Netflix (once again) Raises All Subscription Plans in U.S. (1 Viewer)

[John Dirk]

Interesting. I am thinking of cancelling because to my view they don't have much older content. The last time I looked for 80s TV dramas all they had was Highway to Heaven and Star Trek The Next Generation. I've now seen way more of Highway to Heaven than I ever wanted to.

Yes. I guess the term "older content" is a relative one. I'm currently watching The Arrow. Before that it was The Flash and Supergirl. These all debuted circa 2012. I've also watched the USA Network original series, Suits a couple of times as well as AMC's repeatedly bingeworthy Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. I rarely watch feature films or comedy specials on Netflix.

 

[Desslar]

Yes. I guess the term "older content" is a relative one. I'm currently watching The Arrow. Before that it was The Flash and Supergirl. These all debuted circa 2012. I've also watched the USA Network original series, Suits a couple of times as well as AMC's repeatedly bingeworthy Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. I rarely watch feature films or comedy specials on Netflix.

Sure, that makes sense.

When I first subscribed to Netflix in the early 2010s if felt like they had just about every vintage TV series under the sun, and I had a great time going through classic series I had never seen before or at least not in decades. But they soon started dumping older content, and now it is almost a waste of time to search for any pre-2000 series. And their selection of films has been slimmed down as well.

I do watch recent TV series also, but the bulk of my viewing is probably pre-1990 series. So with great free options like Tubi out there, it's getting harder to see the value of Netflix. My wife watches international drama series on Netflix sometimes, and that's the only thing keeping me from cancelling.

 

[John Sparks]

Sure, that makes sense.

When I first subscribed to Netflix in the early 2010s if felt like they had just about every vintage TV series under the sun, and I had a great time going through classic series I had never seen before or at least not in decades. But they soon started dumping older content, and now it is almost a waste of time to search for any pre-2000 series. And their selection of films has been slimmed down as well.

I do watch recent TV series also, but the bulk of my viewing is probably pre-1990 series. So with great free options like Tubi out there, it's getting harder to see the value of Netflix. My wife watches international drama series on Netflix sometimes, and that's the only thing keeping me from cancelling.

Mine too

 

[John Dirk]

Sure, that makes sense.

When I first subscribed to Netflix in the early 2010s if felt like they had just about every vintage TV series under the sun, and I had a great time going through classic series I had never seen before or at least not in decades. But they soon started dumping older content, and now it is almost a waste of time to search for any pre-2000 series. And their selection of films has been slimmed down as well.

I do watch recent TV series also, but the bulk of my viewing is probably pre-1990 series. So with great free options like Tubi out there, it's getting harder to see the value of Netflix. My wife watches international drama series on Netflix sometimes, and that's the only thing keeping me from cancelling.

You do bring up a great point. Imagine classic series such as Welcome Back Kotter, Family Matters, Martin, Happy Days, Bonanza, etc. available on Netflix. It seems to me anyway, the combined cost to obtain streaming rights for these shows would be less than what they likely paid for "Seinfeld" alone. I enjoyed Seinfeld during it's run and even own several seasons on disc, but I doubt any new members are signing up because of it being available now.

 

[Desslar]

You do bring up a great point. Imagine classic series such as Welcome Back Kotter, Family Matters, Martin, Happy Days, Bonanza, etc. available on Netflix. It seems to me anyway, the combined cost to obtain streaming rights for these shows would be less than what they likely paid for "Seinfeld" alone. I enjoyed Seinfeld during it's run and even own several seasons on disc, but I doubt any new members are signing up because of it being available now.

I recall hearing that Seinfeld was a huge draw in the early years of streaming, but don't know if it is still pulling tis weight.

I know I am an outlier, and most streaming viewers probably only watch content from the last 10 years. But I figure there must be a few of us that appreciate having a wide range of new and old titles available. That's one thing I like about Prime, although it has recently moved most of its older TV content over to the ad-supported Freevee platform.

Interestingly, I don't think I have ever seen any of the titles you mentioned made available on a streaming service. Possibly Martin or Bonanza?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I recall hearing that Seinfeld was a huge draw in the early years of streaming, but don't know if it is still pulling tis weight.

I know I am an outlier, and most streaming viewers probably only watch content from the last 10 years. But I figure there must be a few of us that appreciate having a wide range of new and old titles available. That's one thing I like about Prime, although it has recently moved most of its older TV content over to the ad-supported Freevee platform.

I actually (very) sporadically use NF for Seinfeld... and not a whole lot else myself... but as I've mentioned before, my NF subscription is really for my family (and Mom) far more than me, heh...

Maybe I'll try switching to the much cheaper ad-supported tier next time they hike the price again -- my family might really not care that much -- and then only bump it back up to ad-free (and maybe even 4K premium w/ more streams) if they complain or for just a month or two per year when I actually wanna use the service (for more than just my very sporadic Seinfeld itch, heh) to binge on whatever few/handful things, heh...

I also own plenty enough quality movies on digital (mostly via Apple/iTunes) anyway... and most any worthwhile movies my family wanna watch should likely be accessible that way anyhow, not needing NF for that...

_Man_

 

[Wes Candela]

$20 a month seems like it’s becoming standard.
I knew We would arrive here a few years ago.
We all joked in passing that each network, movie studio and cable channel would release a streaming service
no more Hulu and Netflix once Apple TV+ entered the ring.
Now it’s beyond anything I had imagined by this point ( 200 +)

Look at the attached list:
The Complete List of Streaming Services in 2024 - 200+ Services.pdf

This is desperate greed in the new digital frontier marketplace by the big companies.
This has gotten out of hand.

I’m cutting the services down to maybe 2 or 3.
Netflix, Apple , Disney and maybe one more.

Either way, first world problems.

 

[Desslar]

$20 a month seems like it’s becoming standard.
I knew We would arrive here a few years ago.
We all joked in passing that each network, movie studio and cable channel would release a streaming service
no more Hulu and Netflix once Apple TV+ entered the ring.
Now it’s beyond anything I had imagined by this point ( 200 +)

Look at the attached list:
The Complete List of Streaming Services in 2024 - 200+ Services.pdf

This is desperate greed in the new digital frontier marketplace by the big companies.
This has gotten out of hand.

I’m cutting the services down to maybe 2 or 3.
Netflix, Apple , Disney and maybe one more.

Either way, first world problems.

What we need is some kind of TV platform that could conveniently aggregate all these services together. Something for the people. Maybe a You... tube.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

What we need is some kind of TV platform that could conveniently aggregate all these services together. Something for the people. Maybe a You... tube.

Maybe someone will develop a 3rd party app to handle that better than the few existing aggregater platforms and charge a nominal fee to efficiently, automatically manage our subscriptions (eg. cancel, pause and/or reactivate and maybe more) based on our actual, individual needs so we don't have to do that manually ourselves, heh... Hmmm... maybe that should finally be my 1st web/mobile/STB app project, if I ever actually go such a route, LOL...

_Man_

 

[John Dirk]

I actually (very) sporadically use NF for Seinfeld... and not a whole lot else myself...

But you've been a member for years, right? Seinfeld wasn't what lured you in.

This has gotten out of hand.

I’m cutting the services down to maybe 2 or 3.
Netflix, Apple , Disney and maybe one more.

Come on, @Wes Candela I'd imagine the streaming executives would love this comment.

What we need is some kind of TV platform that could conveniently aggregate all these services together. Something for the people.

We know where this road leads. Unchecked greed eventually causes predictable reactions.

 

[Wes Candela]

What we need is some kind of TV platform that could conveniently aggregate all these services together. Something for the people. Maybe a You... tube.

Agreed

 

[Wes Candela]

But you've been a member for years, right? Seinfeld wasn't what lured you in.


Come on, @Wes Candela I'd imagine the streaming executives would love this comment.


We know where this road leads. Unchecked greed eventually causes predictable reactions.

Well offer us a package for 40 a month with three services

but this is greed run amok.
it’s the Wild West.
Disney for my daughter
apple I get free
Netflix the wife pays for
I could stop there and be fine.

 

[John Dirk]

Well offer us a package for 40 a month with three services

but this is greed run amok.
it’s the Wild West.
Disney for my daughter
apple I get free
Netflix the wife pays for
I could stop there and be fine.

What I meant to convey [somewhat tongue-in-cheek] was, if you tell them you can't do without their product, don't expect a discount.

People need to boycott the platforms to send the proper message. Now, personally, I'm still willing to pay for Netflix but it's getting close to annoying with the frequent price increases and infrequent additions of interesting content.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

But you've been a member for years, right? Seinfeld wasn't what lured you in.

Honestly don't remember anymore quite what originally got me to subscribe (at least consistently) years ago. Even w/ their old/original disc rental bizz, I basically only binge subscribed for certain periods, not year-round in general.... and wasn't doing the disc rentals at all by the time we started trying their streaming service, heh...

_Man_

 

[Wes Candela]

What I meant to convey [somewhat tongue-in-cheek] was, if you tell them you can't do without their product, don't expect a discount.

People need to boycott the platforms to send the proper message. Now, personally, I'm still willing to pay for Netflix but it's getting close to annoying with the frequent price increases and infrequent additions of interesting content.

Ahh

Dirk man didn’t catch that

hey, I’m down with the boycott

I’ll kill everything. Because this is just gonna get worse and worse.
i’ll even turn off what I have for free

If we organize, we have power, just like planet of the apes

Apes together strong

 

[DaveF]

What I meant to convey [somewhat tongue-in-cheek] was, if you tell them you can't do without their product, don't expect a discount.

People need to boycott the platforms to send the proper message. Now, personally, I'm still willing to pay for Netflix but it's getting close to annoying with the frequent price increases and infrequent additions of interesting content.

Too late. When Netflix killed password sharing, that was the moment. But everyone just went along with it, all the other services so that worked fine, and they’re all now killing password / account sharing.

So it goes with the rate increases. Netflix raised rates a couple years ago. And everyone’s ok with it. Parents get kicked off their kids’ accounts? Parents just get their own accounts now.

 

[DaveF]

My worry is that ad-supported is too lucrative over ad-free and I’m priced out.

I’ve been commercial-free (ish) for since 2006 when I got my first TiVo. And even before that since 1998, I was VCR-ing TV and skipping commercials as best possible with fast forward. I’m willing to pay for ad-free viewing for almost all my viewing. But does that become too expensive?

And unlike cable TV, there’s no time-shifting option to work around the ads. (Well…there are…but I’ve not explored them as they have higher risk factors than VCRs and DVRs).

 

[John Dirk]

Too late. When Netflix killed password sharing, that was the moment. But everyone just went along with it, all the other services so that worked fine, and they’re all now killing password / account sharing.

So it goes with the rate increases. Netflix raised rates a couple years ago. And everyone’s ok with it. Parents get kicked off their kids’ accounts? Parents just get their own accounts now.

Well, it's never [theoretically] too late but I tend to agree with you. Manufacturers and service providers [collectively, "they"] alike have realized they only need to sway a large majority. They can effectively ignore the outliers as we represent such a small margin of the consumer base.

It's why credit card interest rates continue to increase. It's why Walmart [and others] have switched almost entirely to self-checkout lanes and then only want to open those at the rate they have barely conscious employees available to ensure we're not stealing. It's why cell phone companies continue to raise rates using devious practices. I could go on but I'm sure you get the point.

Even though I know these battles are effectively lost, I refuse to step in line. In the case of streaming platforms, it's entertainment. It's not food or shelter. I like to complain when "they" get out of line so I have to be willing to back it up and let them know I can do without their products and services. I've began transitioning to Aldi for much of my grocery needs, I've switched to Visible for cell phone service, I always pay CC balances in full and Netflix is currently on a very thin string.