Looks like Blu-ray rentals are getting more and more popular on Netflix—so much so, in fact, that the movies-by-mail giant will soon boost Blu-ray fees well beyond the current $1 surcharge.
Netflix broke down the new pricing scheme on its blog—so, for example, if you have the one-DVD-at-a-time unlimited plan, the current $8.99 subscription fee will go up $2, to $10.99. If you've got the two-a-month plan, you'll see a price hike of $3 … and so on, all the way up to an additional $9 a month for the 8-disc-a-month plan (for a new total of $56.99).
Netflix has already raised Blu-ray rental fees once—a modest $1 per account—back in August.
So for someone like me, who has the four-a-month unlimited DVD plan, the Blu-ray rental surcharge will essentially quintuple from $1 a month to $5/month. That's a pretty steep price hike, if you ask me.
In the blog post, Netflix marketing VP Jessie Becker notes that Blu-ray discs are "substantially more expensive than standard definition DVDs—often as much as 30 percent more," and that almost 10 percent of NetFlix subscribers are now renting Blu-ray discs.
"We're committed to providing a high quality Blu-ray experience … and in order to do that we need to adjust Blu-ray pricing," Becker writes.
Well, I'd hope that the higher prices would at least bring a larger inventory of Blu-ray discs. Many Blu-ray new releases are often stamped with the "Short Wait" or "Long Wait" tag—for example, I'm still waiting for "Quantum of Solace" (which was released last week) to arrive from my queue.
That said, I have no plans to defect to Blockbuster—at least, not yet.
So, what do you think—willing to fork over even more cash to rent Blu-ray movies from Netflix?
Related:
Netflix to Boost Blu-ray Rental Fee 20%, Citing Higher Demand [Bloomberg News]