Here at WebProNews, keeping you abreast about the goings-on in the tech industry is job one, but we’re also here to inform and, in some cases, remind people of upcoming changes. With that in mind, here’s our public service announcement for today:
The oft-discussed and ridiculed Netflix price changes are going to go into effect in two days. That’s right, those of you who want both streaming and DVD rentals, on September 1st, be prepared to pay more for these services. In case it slipped your mind, here’s a refresher concerning the Netflix price changes:
Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming), for $7.99 a month.
That’s all fine and good, but to have both streaming and rentals, the price goes up to $15.98 a month. For those of you who are like me and have both options, it means you’ll either:
A. change your plan to either streaming or DVDs, or,
B. prepare to pay more the for the ability to have both.
Needless to say, when Netflix announced these adjustments, the proverbial poop hit the fan all over the Internet. Netflix’s Facebook page was inundated with replies–most of them negative–as was Netflix’s blog post that announced these changes.
To date, the Netflix Facebook discussion as reached over 80,000 comments. The blog post in question quickly hit the 5000 comment threshold, and there are an additional 12,000-plus comments from the Facebook/Blogger plugin that allows users to comment on a post via their Facebook account.
That’s almost 100,000 responses to the Netflix price hike, courtesy of social media, and I haven’t even included anything from Twitter, which would undoubtedly push this total well over the 1 million comments mark. That’s a lot of feedback, and most of it was not in agreement with Netflix’s decision.
Is the price hike and subsequent backlash the very definition of a first world problem? Perhaps, but people love their movies, and they don’t like price increases. Considering the social media world we live in, such reaction was inevitable. With that in mind, allow us to end where we began:
The Netflix price changes will be arriving in two days, or, depending on when you read this, September 1st. Much like daylight savings, don’t forget to adjust your account accordingly, unless you want to get snagged by unwanted increases on your debit/credit card.
