Some months ago, Netflix announced that they would be introducing new fees to cover the cost of customers like me who have Blu-Ray and opt to get Blu-Ray movies over DVD when they’re available, because the discs cost more to purchase than regular DVDs. I was irritated by this. While I like Blu-Ray I didn’t neccesarily want to pay a tithe to get movies in that format. It’s great and all, but for most kinds of movies it’s not that much of an improvement over DVD. Only big budget or carefully shot movies are markedly improved by the higher definition. Meanwhile, I figured Netflix’s fee structure would only lengthen the time it takes for Blu-Ray to catch on and for the cost of the discs to come down, because folks would simply opt not to get them if they cost more.
As of this month, Netflix is charging the fee, and they made a great compromise move. It’s only $1 more a month, easily palatable and an acceptable balance between cost and access. I was pleasantly surprised, figuring they would raise it by at least several dollars, or start charging a per Blu-Ray disc rental addon fee. Kudos to the folks at Netflix for how they handled this.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 
cool… companies deserve credit when they do stuff like that. They could have easily gotten away with 2-3 bucks more and only lost a few customers, but they recognize the value of retaining folks and keeping them happy. I’ve never been anything but thrilled with Netflix. Sometimes their selection is a little lacking. And I wish they had games. Though for the sake of my family and career, it’s probably best they don’t.
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Yes, but… sometimes I’ll go a month watching tv shows from Netflix, with nary a Blu-ray rental. I wish they wouldn’t charge for them months you don’t rent Blu-rays.
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I guess it doesn’t bother me that much – I’d rather pay an extra buck every month for the ability to get Blu-Ray, versus a sliding fee based on what I used. If the availability of Blu-Ray is not much higher in a year or so I’ll be singing a different tune I guess, but for now, I’m happy with how they approached this.
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