Time to Dial Back

The Netflix price hike is making the news lately.

I like Netflix. I first got a low-cost one-out-at-a-time subscription. It was pretty cool to see new movies and catch up on old ones. Often, I'd forget about the queue and be pleasantly surprised by what showed up in the mail (Why did I want this? Oh, that's why!) Then they offered free streaming video. That was awesome and became even greater once I hooked up the Wii to get the shows on the flat panel TV. When I got a Blu Ray player, I updated to Blu Ray at an additional cost. The picture quality was great. Prices went up a bit during that time, too, but nothing big. Now Netflix is raising my price by 50% by charging separately for streaming video. So I have to choose what to do.

I could just pay. But on top of my cable bill, I'm reaching the tipping point for paying for television entertainment. If it wasn't for sports programming and children's shows, I'm not sure I'd even have cable TV.

So my realistic choices are downgrading to DVDs to shave a couple bucks off the bill. In my queue, I actually have lots of DVDs where Blu Rays aren't available. So I don't fully take advantage of it. And even DVDs look a bit better on the Blu Ray. But it isn't a big cost, either way.

I could keep the disk subscription (whether Blu Ray or DVD) and cut the streaming stuff. But the kids really like that and so do I. An alternative would be to use Amazon streaming video by signing up for Amazon Prime shipping. That would be cheaper than Netflix, but Amazon doesn't have the selection--yet. And I think I'd have to go back to watching on my computer. I'd need a separate device to stream to my TV, I assume. Or a new TV with Internet connectivity built in would do the trick. All added costs unless my TV conks out and I have to buy a new one anyway.

But looking at my queue, I see that very few of the disks are really high priority for me. A bunch, in addition to being DVDs, are TV series that I either like a lot back in the day or didn't catch before they were cancelled more recently. In the end, how much do I really want to relive "The Equalizer" or find out if "Life on Mars" was any good?

So I put the high priority movies at the top of my queue and I can see that I can easily watch the current movies that I really want to see before my renewal at the end of the month. I think I'll probably keep the streaming and dump the disks. Redbox and even Blockbuster (I still have my old card somewhere) down the road could supply recent movies that I want to see without the bulk of what is in my Netflix queue.

Perhaps I'm being infected with Tea Party optimism that the costs of entertainment don't have to always ratchet up. This decision will actually reduce my costs from current spending. Even if I rent a few movies a month outside Netflix, my costs will be cheaper than projected increases (see, I can understand even federal accounting standards!).

And once I've broken the physical link to Netflix when disks no longer arrive in my mailbox, in time I'll be better positioned to look for alternatives to their streaming stuff like Hulu or Amazon. As long as not too many people jump off the treadmill, Netflix will do fine with their new pricing. But there is a risk that enough people will make decisions like me and make the leap to alternatives.

And cable company? You've got maybe 5 years before children's programming doesn't keep me lashed to your ever-rising costs because I have to pay for the home shopping channel and all the rest of the dial that I have no interest in watching just to get what I like.