Netflix Increase Blu-ray Rental Costs

In April last year, popular movie-rental-by-mail company Netflix announced they would be charging extra for subscribers who wanted to rent Blu-ray discs.  Unpopular though this move was, Netflix stated the reason was the increased cost of the discs purchase and that high-def fans were 'used to paying more'.  Two factual statements, certainly, and perhaps understandable at the beginning of Blu-ray's life, but hardly welcome.

So, a year and a half and one million Blu-ray renting subscribers later, Netflix must be preparing to bring the costs into line with standard DVD, correct?  No, quite the opposite.  From April 26th Netflix will be adding between $1 to $9 to the monthly charge - for example, their mid-level four DVD's a month package will go from $23.99 to $28.99 for anyone wanting to rent Blu-ray discs!

The reason for this increase?  The higher cost of the discs over their DVD counterparts (is there an echo at the Netflix office?) and the increased amount of Blu-ray's entering the market.  With the retail costs of Blu-ray discs falling considerably in the last year and the amount of Blu-ray-using Netflix subscribers increasing, this excuse will be very hard to swallow for many of their more faithful customers, plus, without any details on Netflix's actual outlay for a Blu-ray disc, impossible to put into context.

Of course, if Netflix improve their service and Blu-ray renters have a bigger choice with a faster turnaround, then the cost may not be such an issue, but the casual Blu-ray watcher may not see the point in paying extra, which does nothing for Blu-ray's adoption.

Comments

[prr643]

Sony should be throwing a fit about this and Blockbuster should advertise the hell out of the fact that they don't charge extra for Blu. I for one have had it with Netflix. $1 extra was annoying, but acceptable. More then that, well, I opened a Blockbuster account today to try them out.