Netflix Planning on Raising Prices for Blu-Ray Subscribers

[QuadcoreHD]

I hear so many people talking about how utterly thrilled they are they blu-ray "won". On the contrary?

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/High-Def_Disc_Rentals/Netflix/Netflix_to_Raise_Prices_for_Blu-ray_Subscribers/1671

btw, saint-francis already posted this in the News section, just figured it might be an interesting topic for discussion :P

[JohnnyMalaria]

I'm sure the same discussion is being had in the parallel universe where HD-DVD won....

[QuadcoreHD]

Hmmmm, im not so sure if that would be true...

[saint-francis]

I'm not sure either. Production costs for HD DVD's was much lower and HD DVD spent much less on marketing so their ultimately would have been lees losses to recover from. I'm now wondering when and where we are going to see BD and BD related product costs climbing.

[DigitAl56K]

I would be okay with this if they also publicly committed to reducing the Blu-Ray premium towards zero in direct proportion to the additional cost of producing Blu-Ray discs over DVDs - i.e. at the point that Blu-Ray can be made as cheaply as DVD the premium goes away.

Look at it from another point of view - I don't really care at this point in time if movies I rent are standard def, I haven't upgraded all my equipment yet and I'm actually more interested in them creating a better selection for their online "instant" service. I don't necessarily want to subsidize someone else's Blu-Ray service.

Also consider that if Blu-Ray costs are higher and they were to subsidize them then as more people move to Blu-Ray the subsidy would become unsustainable and thus either Blu-Ray prices have to go up, or we all simply pay more.

With regard to Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, although I personally prefer HD-DVD mainly because it makes less efforts against my fair use rights, I'm also glad this format war is over so that finally HD material can become common in the consumer space. It is a shame if it truly costs much more to produce Blu-Ray media than HD-DVD, distribution formats really ought to focus more on serving the consumer.

[QuadcoreHD]

@Digital

I guess my point in posting this was really to point out one (of the many) advantages of HD-DVD over Blu-Ray; specifically the cost of production/manufacture. I think if HD-DVD was still around, or I dare say, won the format war, Blu-Ray/HD-DVD's would be in the $14.99 to $19.99 price range instead of 25-35 dollars as we see now. Also, this Netflix premium increase may not happen. I really think there were so many benefits to having 2 competing formats and its a shame that the competition is over and - in my opinion - the less consumer friendly choice "won". I beleive this Netflix price increase is symbolic of events to come in the high-def disc/player whatever industry.

[DigitAl56K]

I agree, having multiple formats would lead to better price competitiveness, but Blu-Ray still has to compete against DVD.

I see two vantage points on the state of Blu-Ray. One is that people who have Blu-Ray players now have probably paid the premium to get a nice HD TV, Blu-Ray player, and are willing to spend the extra cash to buy Blu-Ray discs over DVD. The industry can price gouge these people if they want, probably with little consequence. They are bought into the Blu-Ray format essentially. The other is that there are an order of magnitude more people who are still using DVD and are either content with it, or don't want to pay for HDTV, Blu-Ray player, and a premium on every Blu-Ray disc they buy. The Blu-Ray and HD-DVD war has fatigued their interest and they're now used to doing without. The price point for Blu-Ray will affect the rate at which people migrate to the newer format, and thus the revenue potential for Blu-Ray's investors (be it patent holders, the studios, device manufacturers, and so forth).

There are other factors, of course. Much of the world is in a recession or suffering some degree of financial hardship due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, reducing consumer spending. There may not even be much of an analyst expectation for people to move to Blu-Ray over DVD during this time, i.e. its possible that we might see a much harder push on consumers in terms of marketing for Blu-Ray towards the second half of the year when some economists predict we will be coming out of the recession and more Blu-Ray titles are available. Careful timing could mean big value gains for media industry stocks.

More crazy theories brought to you from the mind of DigitAl56K :)

[DigitAl56K]

Since we mentioned the cost of HD-DVD, I thought this might make for some interesting reading: http://www.betanews.com/article/The_cost_of_losing_the_format_war_Toshiba_falls_on_its_sword/1209137344

[cdanddvdpublisher]

Since we mentioned the cost of HD-DVD, I thought this might make for some interesting reading: http://www.betanews.com/article/The_cost_of_losing_the_format_war_Toshiba_falls_on_its_sword/1209137344

It was a good/interesting read; thanks for posting the link.

[calinb]

With regard to Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, although I personally prefer HD-DVD mainly because it makes less efforts against my fair use rights, I'm also glad this format war is over so that finally HD material can become common in the consumer space. It is a shame if it truly costs much more to produce Blu-Ray media than HD-DVD, distribution formats really ought to focus more on serving the consumer.

Now it's time to pay Sony for their movie studio bribes, I guess! It's all water under the bridge, but good stuff in your posts here, DigitAl56K. I've encountered a few HD-DVDs without any DRM at all. I guess it was optional under the HD-DVD license but Blu-Ray requires the authors to include it.

To be fair (WRT my “bribe” assertion), BRD has always been the inferior and more costly product for consumers. BRD features include mandatory DRM, higher manufacturing costs, and no backward-compatible dual side HD-DVD/DVD capability. HD-DVD was the more consumer friendly product, for all those reasons.

-Cal

[EPiPH0NE]

Yeah I just love taking the time to remove useless pulldown flags, non-core based HD audio, and an endless stream of inferior DD+ tracks. Why are we griping about the DRM on BluRay when Slysoft seems to have it under control? If HD-DVD had 'won' I can almost guarantee there would of eventually been HD-DVD+. The studios would of demanded it either way. BluRay is much more PC friendly but then again I get my BluRay's/HD-DVD's for literally pennies on the dollar.

[Gusar]

Why are we griping about the DRM on BluRay when Slysoft seems to have it under control?Because not everyone in the world uses Windows and/or is ready to spend additional money to obtain back the rights that they should have had for free.

[EPiPH0NE]

Because not everyone in the world uses Windows and/or is ready to spend additional money to obtain back the rights that they should have had for free.


I agree, but what's done is done. Setting up a windows box to rip discs is not uncommon and very easy.

[jashnew]

I love Blu-Ray and like talking about it. What is everybody's prediction when you walk into a Blockbuster and everything you see is Blu-Ray instead of DVD? In other words when will dvd go away like VHS? I predict 2015.

[mudda_t]

I love Blu-Ray and like talking about it. What is everybody's prediction when you walk into a Blockbuster and everything you see is Blu-Ray instead of DVD? In other words when will dvd go away like VHS? I predict 2015.
When everybodys crt's start dying and they go out and buy an hdtv (because they don't make crt's anymore) and realize that sd and dvd look like crap on their new flat panels. Plus, blu-ray standalones will have to fall to $200 or less. (if memory serves me when dvd standalones hit $200 dvd took off)

[EPiPH0NE]

When everybodys crt's start dying and they go out and buy an hdtv (because they don't make crt's anymore) and realize that sd and dvd look like crap on their new flat panels. Plus, blu-ray standalones will have to fall to $200 or less. (if memory serves me when dvd standalones hit $200 dvd took off)


LOL....SD XviD looks fine on my 46" LCD...of course SD x264 looks better.....and yes once there are $99-$200 BluRay Disc players at Walmart then it will 'catch on' with Joe Sixpack. Then again if you already have a BD-rom/HD-DVD-rom then you can already get a BluRay/HD-DVD combo player for <$200 :)