This AP story ( http://news.yahoo.com/netflix-gets-kid-friendly-raises-us-prices-163759137.html) really burries the lead. Headlined as: "Netflix gets kid friendly as it raises US prices", the first six of ten paragraphs discuss how NF has added a "just for kids" tab with recommendations for kid-friendly programs (streamed only), and that half of NF users streamed at least 2 kids programs in the last 3 months. Not until graph seven do we get the real news here:
"Netflix has been mulling a change that would eliminate household sharing of Internet video streaming and require each individual user to pay a monthly fee." Todd Yellin, the company's vice president of product innovation, is quoted as saying that the kids tab does not make the individual user pricing more or less likely: "It's just something that's a possibility, but not imminent." To be fair to the AP, perhaps this is not news, and I just have not seen it before. In any case, this is the change that would kill Netflix in my house. Even with the imminent price increase/reduction in service, Netflix continues to be a good or at least fair deal for my family. If in the future they move to a pricing plan that charges me a separate monthly fee for each user (which I assume would have to mean each device) in my family, it would no longer be a good deal, and I would discontinue. I suppose the details will matter - if they charge something like $3 per month per device we might continue (although one of the nice things about NF is that I watch it myself on at least three devices (my home office computer, the blu ray device in my home office, and the computer at my work office), while my son watches it on both his Wii and PS3 and Laptop, depending on where he is in the house, and my older daughters watch it on their various computers, often in different states. Even at $3 per device, it would cost me like $24/month just to have the same access I have now. At $8/month, even with streaming only, NF is a good deal as long as I have access on multiple devices. If they start charging per device I might as well go back to some form of pay per view system to supplement cable (plus whatever pirating/stealing my older kids did before we got NF). -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
