Netflix raising rates for Blu-ray subscribers by around 20 percent

Ruh roh. In a move that will undoubtedly cause an incredibly raucous stir, only to fade away as movie renters realize that Netflix is still the best deal going, America's most adored by-mail rental service is hiking the price of Blu-ray rentals once again. If you'll recall, Netflix already implemented a $1 per month fee for Blu-ray customers back in October, and now it's looking to push that premium higher by around 20 percent across its pricing tiers. The company asserts that the increase (slated to hit April 27th and only applicable to BD customers) is due to it buying more titles on BD to "accommodate the increasing number of Netflix members who prefer renting movies on Blu-ray." In fact, nearly 10 percent of all Netflix customers are choosing BD now, and obviously these platters cost quite a bit more for anyone (even Netflix) to procure. Head past the break to see how big of a hardship this will be on you.

Thanks to Lee for the email image.

[StephenD @ Mar 30th 2009 2:02PM]

Amazing, LoveFilm (the UK equivalent) don't charge ANYTHING extra for Blu-Ray. Nae luck America!

[AVG @ Mar 30th 2009 2:23PM]

Somehow, I doubt they compare.

[bk7 @ Mar 30th 2009 2:32PM]

why do you say that? they use the exact same model, although admittedly there isn't the xbox/netflix integration taht you can enjoy in USA.

[chispito @ Mar 30th 2009 2:36PM]

Perhaps they overcharge for standard DVD rentals?

[walk.away @ Mar 30th 2009 3:47PM]

On lovefilm i pay £4.99 a month for unlimted dvds (or blu ray, but dont have a bluray player) but only have one at a time. Not so expensive, maybe cheaper than Netflix.

[AVG @ Mar 31st 2009 9:27AM]

I just looked at the LoveFilm website. Looks like they hired whoever does all of the most low budget torrent webpages to design it for them. That was my first indication that it might not be on the same level as Netflix.

[kamel5547 @ Mar 30th 2009 6:42PM]

LoveFilm rates are higher:

1 DVD at a time (9.78 Pounds or $14.00) is $3.01 more with blu-ray premium included
2 DVD's at a time (12.72 or $18.21) is $1.22 more with blu-ray premium included
3 DVD's at a time (15.65 or $22.41) is $1.42 more with blu-ray premium included
No higher palns listed that I could find.

I'm not sure how that compares vis-a-vis retail price differences, but it appears the blu-ray premium is built into the price already.

[StephenD @ Mar 30th 2009 8:13PM]

Pah you and your pesky evidence. This is treasure island - everything costs more. Besides, your forgetting to include sales tax which isn't included in the US prices, but is in the UK ones (at whopping 15%, so it seems the LoveFilm do charge less, but the tax man charges more).

Like I said: Nae luck British.

[Ordeith @ Mar 30th 2009 2:09PM]

BDA overcharging for Blu-Ray CONFIRMED!

[Revels @ Mar 30th 2009 4:04PM]

The British Dental Association? Get Lemming on the case!

[Izzy @ Mar 30th 2009 7:06PM]

Nah, Mr. Bean.

[Chad @ Mar 30th 2009 7:44PM]

F*ck NetFlix. How do I go from $1 to $3? That's a pretty steep jump. I'm going to kick it down to 1 at a time... if everyone kicks their plan down a notch it will be a symbolic kick to the balls.

[Ray-- @ Mar 30th 2009 2:11PM]

I pay $1 a month now for BD... the chart says now I will be paying $4? That's a lot more than a 20% increase!

[geeklawyer @ Mar 30th 2009 2:14PM]

Yeah... and I'm going from $1 to $3 on my 2-at-a-time plan. That appears to be a 200% increase.

[superberg @ Mar 30th 2009 2:15PM]

Looks like I'm stepping down to one at a time!

[Neil Marr @ Mar 30th 2009 2:16PM]

My thoughts exactly... Going from $1 to $4 is NOT how I define a 20% increase!!

[Shenanigans @ Mar 30th 2009 2:20PM]

Your math is a little off.

Right now it is $16.99 + $1 for Blu-ray and I know cause I got the same package. Adding $3 to the $18 fee is 20%...

[Chuckles McGee @ Mar 30th 2009 2:21PM]

But your total rate to rent will increase by around 20% if you choose rent blurays--ex. $9 to $11.

[geeklawyer @ Mar 30th 2009 2:21PM]

There are obviously two ways to look at the math. I'm choosing the way that justifies the most outrage. :)

[jbuers @ Mar 30th 2009 2:26PM]

23.5% of $16.99 is $4. Netflix is saying they're charging a (roughly) 20% premium on you monthly subscription, not adding 20% of the Blueray surcharge.

[wunch @ Mar 30th 2009 2:27PM]

Yeah, the post wording is misleading. It looks like the price is increasing from a fixed $1 rate TO ~20% of your base monthly fee, which is an actual increase in the fee itself of anywhere from 0-800%. Or, in other words, your overall monthly fee increases by ~20% if you want Blu-Ray. :(

Fiscally, I suppose this makes sense, but it sure does hurt. For 3-at-a-time, your total monthly fee increases from

[Cronick @ Mar 30th 2009 2:34PM]

I just canceled my Blu-Ray with these idiots! First, they don't actually have Blu-Ray. They're lying. I had 20 BD picks in my queue and never got 1 disk sent to me after 2 weeks. I called and they admitted they were 'sold-out' and I had to wait for 1 to be returned, then if I got lucky, they would send me one of my picks. Second, they now want to increase the cost by 400%. Fuck them. Fuck them up the ass. No more Netflix BS for me.

[joe23521 @ Mar 30th 2009 3:01PM]

@Cronick ,

I think a surcharge on a per-disc-received basis was be more fair than a monthly charge.

[James @ Mar 30th 2009 3:22PM]

After 2 months of not getting any of the 20+ blu-rays in my queue because they was a "short" wait on them i canceled my account with them.

[xtole @ Mar 30th 2009 4:58PM]

Canceled my subscription 20 mins ago. This is BS.

[fastm3driver @ Mar 30th 2009 5:04PM]

The only way to fix this is to cancel the bluray plan or your netflix all together. Only for a month or two and they will get the picture. I don't really blame netflix but they need more of an incentive to put pressure to the Sony cartel to lower the prices.
This is however the inevitable repercussions of going with the least consumer friendly disc format. You were all warned that making bluray's were more expensive than DVD's although I'm sure that is a small part of the consumers price. What should happen is BB, blockbuster, walmart and netflix should get together and stop selling the bluray's until they can get their act together.

[Alex @ Mar 30th 2009 5:58PM]

So now my rate went from $17.99 to $16.99 a month. I just cancelled the blue ray option. Anycase, at least 90% of the movies are still DVD only. Hopefully, most of us will do the same and they will get back to no surcharge. If not, I'm afraid next move is surcharge for streaming...

[Drew @ Mar 30th 2009 6:15PM]

Why are you guys still talking about this Blu-ray stuff? What happened to wunch? Maybe he just keeled over? We need to organize a rescue party!

[zane @ Mar 31st 2009 12:05AM]

Netflix account canceled!

http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/2009/03/30/so-long-netflix/

[superberg @ Mar 30th 2009 2:12PM]

Seriously??? If more people are renting Blu-Ray, doesn't it become less expensive? It looks like they're just trying to pass on the initial cost onto their customers.

Why not offer an option for "First Available" next to DVD or Blu-Ray, saving you from frustrated customers, and saving customers from increased cost?

[KarlW @ Mar 30th 2009 2:33PM]

That's one way to do it. Of course, if Blu-Ray was gaining significantly over DVD, Netflix would get the additional money by making DVDs more expensive as a deterrent, allowing them to buy less DVD copies and switch to Blu-Ray.

So, in other words, it depends on the amount of people Blu-Ray are gaining. Until they become the majority format, the price will increase with additional users.

[John @ Mar 30th 2009 2:36PM]

They have to build up stock of the Blu Ray titles, which is a significant cost.

[dg @ Mar 30th 2009 2:47PM]

You're forgetting one thing. Blu-Ray is MORE EXPENSIVE! More people wanting Blu-Ray instead of DVD means they have to buy things that are MORE EXPENSIVE to accommodate them.

They're not raising prices because more people wanting BD makes BD more expensive, they're just adjusting the fee to actually make it profitable. No costs changed, they just realized it's FREAKING EXPENSIVE!

Until BD's are LESS EXPENSIVE than DVD's, or equally so, there will obviously be a fee. This isn't hard to understand.

[Shawn Pauley @ Mar 30th 2009 3:10PM]

No, it's the exact opposite. Increase in demand means an increase in price.

[Vinnie @ Mar 30th 2009 2:15PM]

I prefer Blockbuster mail renting thingy, cause when you're done watching the movie, you can drive to the store and exchange it for a new movie. And you get a free game rental every month :)

[zephxiii @ Mar 31st 2009 7:48AM]

lol, everyone here must hate blockbuster!!

[unboring @ Mar 31st 2009 12:51PM]

yeah thats hilarious that people will vote down because of brand loyalty, even when their mad at that brand!!!! insanity

but yeah i didnt realize about the free game! thats awesome, and the exchange for a movie thing is cool. quicker that way. thanks for the protip

[Aaron @ Mar 30th 2009 2:13PM]

WTF NETFLIX!?

4 dollar increase for my plan? Fucking preposterous.

I wonder how much it costs the company to be able to rent out Blu-Ray films?

[Wes @ Mar 30th 2009 2:54PM]

Well, if they spend $10,000,000.00 a year on DVDs and 10% of their populace now prefers blu-ray titles and we'll say on average blu-ray titles are double the cost of their DVD counterpart, we could say $2,000,000.00.

2 million dollars to satisify 10% of the customer base versus 10 million dollars to satisfy 90% of the customer base, seems like blu-ray renters are more expensive cost-wise to the company in dollars spent per percentage of customer base, Aaron. Its probably why blu-ray members will have to pay about 20% more. Which when you think about it, should just about balance out the inequality that may have existed before.

[Timmy @ Mar 30th 2009 2:18PM]

Buy more copies of Blu-Ray movies Netflix then this would be worth it, month long waits for movied already on pay perview is not cutting it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jake @ Mar 30th 2009 2:30PM]

Um, I think that's what the extra fee is for, dude.

[Warren @ Mar 30th 2009 6:42PM]

@ Jake: WIN

[sunookitsune @ Mar 30th 2009 2:16PM]

Customers who currently have Blu-rays on their account do not appear to be affected:

Your plan is no longer offered

You currently have Blu-ray access on your plan for $1.00 a month. Blu-ray access on this plan is now $4.00 a month. If you select a new plan, you will not be able to return to this price.

[Peter @ Mar 30th 2009 2:24PM]

That would be nice if existing BD users are grandfathered in.

I still don't buy the "we need to purchase more Blu-Ray discs" claim since they no longer need to purchase DVDs for those users. It's the same number of discs, it's just the breakdown that's changing.

If they were smart, they would have blamed it on the outrageous price of Blu-Ray discs (which consumers know to be true) and then we could get angry at the right source.

[Jake @ Mar 30th 2009 2:28PM]

I'm getting the same message, so it appears that current customers who are already paying the $1 surcharge will not have to pay the higher rates.* That's good news, and should be featured more prominently (both in this story and in the eventual Netflix press release/blog post on the subject).

* Unless this is a mistake, and Netflix ends up "correcting" it when it becomes public knowledge.

[Arnie @ Mar 30th 2009 2:42PM]

Sorry this is completely false. I just got my email from Netflix and they said I will be paying the additional surcharge (from 1 to 4) starting 4$. Sorry to bust your bubble on that one.

[rknickme @ Mar 30th 2009 2:43PM]

I don't think this is true, for me at least. I got an email from Netflix earlier today announcing the price hike on my account.

[Jake @ Mar 30th 2009 2:43PM]

Actually, it doesn't appear that we are grandfathered in. This Netflix blog post suggests that the new fees will be applied to existing accounts, too, starting next month:

"If you have added Blu-ray access to your account, this change will take effect on your next billing date on or after April 27, 2009. You will also receive an email from us letting you know the monthly charge for your plan. (Members who do not have Blu-ray access today and add it to their account in the future will see the new prices as of today.)"

(from http://blog.netflix.com/2009/03/price-update-for-access-to-blu-ray.html)

[Leon @ Mar 30th 2009 2:49PM]

you're dead wrong. I have the plan for 3 dvds at a time with blu ray access for $1 extra, here's the email I just got:
You are receiving this email because you added unlimited Blu-ray access to your account for $1 a month. The number of Blu-ray titles has increased significantly and will continue to do so. As we buy more, you are able to choose from a rapidly expanding selection of Blu-ray titles. And as you've probably heard, Blu-ray discs are substantially more expensive than standard definition DVDs.

As a result, the monthly charge for Blu-ray access is increasing for most plans and will now vary by plan. The charge for monthly Blu-ray access on your 3 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will increase from $1 a month to $4 a month. The price of your 3 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan is not changing and remains at $16.99 a month.

The new charge for Blu-ray access will be automatically added to your next billing statement on or after April 27, 2009 and will be referenced in your Membership Terms and Details.

[Nightryder21 @ Mar 30th 2009 2:19PM]

Simple Math guys: 1-(Old Price/New Price) = close to 20%