Quietly this year Netflix has been rolling out its increased pricing, even to old timers like myself who came in and stayed at the $7.99 price point.
Well no longer, like everyone else my rate is going up to $10 (or $9.99 like they like to say). $2.00 while it doesn’t sound like much is a 25% rate hike. There’s not many of us who get a 25% raise.
That said, there aren’t many of us with a track record like Netflix.
Their original programming has beeen nothing less than stellar, and that train is not only continuing to roll, it is picking up speed.
So I’m staying on board with the price hike. $10 still being a far cry from cable TV that I have easily and happily done without for over a decade. Still a 25% price hike is not something you want to make a habit of. Especially when the streaming market is heading toward a dangerous level of fragmentation, from the CRITERION movies spinning off into their own streaming channel, to CBS trying to lure viewers to their fledgling streaming channel with a new Star Trek TV show; hard choices are going to have to be made.
I love the idea of access to CRITERION’s huge library or a new Star Trek TV show, but I am at my limit with paid streaming channels at three.
At my house we have NETFLIX (for tv shows, movies, and their original programming), AMAZON PRIME (for free 2day shipping, a much larger selection of movies than Netflix has, particularly older movies, and different tv shows), and HULU (for more recent TV shows, a huge back catalog of classic television, and the Criterion collection – which unfortunately they are losing this November).
Between those 3 channels I’m right at my $30 limit for streaming services. So for me to take on a new channel I would have to unsubscribe from one of these.
HULU, because of losing CRITERION, is going to be the one on the chopping block with any upcoming streaming channel, but even without CRITERION, it offers me dozens of shows I want to see more of, as well as the ability to watch recent TV. Any new streaming service has to offer at least as much viewing options to be a contender. CBS would have been better hawking their new Star Trek to one of these three streaming frontrunners than trying to go it their own.
That said this post is specifically about Netflix, and the 15 reasons that even with the price hike, you are going to want to stay subscribed in June.
1. THE MARVEL/NETFLIX Shows – 2 seasons of DAREDEVIL and 1 season of JESSICA JONES currently avaiable, and a minimum of 4 more shows on the horizon (LUKE CAGE:POWER MAN, IRON FIST, PUNISHER, THE DEFENDERS) the showrunners have been crushing it, crafting ground-breaking genre Tv, that is first and foremost… great TV.
2. HOUSE OF CARDS – 1ST for all those with a knee-jerk reaction against remakes, this American Remake of a 4 part BBC series, is powers of magnitude better than the original series. Netflix’s first critical and commercial and award winning hit… and with good reason. And a 5th season was recently green-lit.
3. MOVIES – I feel Netflix has a very stagnant Movie Library, offering at best mediocre films to their rotation. June is a particularly lackluster month with only a few films being worth your time. among them : COLD IN JULY, EXTRAORDINARY TALES, GABO : THE CREATION OF GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ, HADWIN’S JUDGEMENT, JANIS:LITTLE GIRL BLUE, SECOND COMING, EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE (Wim Wenders), SPOTLIGHT, CRONIES, LIFE,
4. MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD – Much to my surprise I warmed to this show in the first season, and thought the second season was great. And now the third season finally breaks on Netflix.
5. VOLTRON Season 1 – Netflix resurrects this popular 80s TV show in a new animated series
6. BEING MARY JANE Season 3 – More WTF moments than you can shake a stick at, and just rich performances and engrossing (if at times jaw dropping) situations.
That’s it gals and guys, my six reasons to pony up $10 for Netflix in June!!
Heroic Times 