Thursday, July 14, 2011

Alternatives to Netflix


With the upcoming price increase from the Streaming Giant Netflix, some find themselves looking for alternatives. Below is a list of other services that operate very similar to Netflix.

Hulu + for Android: Update

Hulu Plus is now available for the following 4 Android devices.
As stated in a previous post Hulu Plus is also available on the following Android devices.
Follow this link to view previous post>  http://tinyurl.com/hulu-hav

Netflix Price Increase

Netflix will be increasing their price plans an average of $3.00 per plan. This has almost every Netflix user in outrage. On Netflix's Blog they claim it is not financially beneficial for them to offer unlimited streaming and DVD's together. After looking at their financial statements I do not see where they are not benefiting financially. The reported a Net Income last year of $160,853,000. Check it out for yourself==> http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/NFLX/1323320832x0x460274/17454C5B-3088-48C7-957A-B5A83A14CF1B/132054ACL.PDF (page 50). Yet it is not going to make financial sense when majority of their subscribers unsubscribe and find alternatives to Netflix. Their blog post has 5,000 comments and I could only find a couple that were positive towards their new pricing structure. Majority of the comments were to inform Netflix that they would be cancelling their subscription at the end of the month.

Here is the Breakdown:
  • Unlimited Streaming                                               $7.99
  • Unlimited Streaming w/ 1 DVD                             $15.98
  • Unlimited Streaming w/ 2 DVD's                           $19.98 
  • Unlimited Streaming w/ 3 DVD's                           $23.98
  • Unlimited Streaming w/ 4 DVD's                           $29.98
  • Limited 1 DVD out with only 2 rentals per month $4.99
They have separated Unlimited Streaming from the DVD rentals, so be careful if you have to make changes to your plan. For instance, if you were to want unlimited streaming + 1 DVD out at a time it is $7.99 for streaming + $7.99 for 1 DVD for a total of $15.98. And no, existing customers to Netflix will not be grandfathered in.