AfterDawn: News

Netflix begins charging extra for Blu-ray rentals

In April, Netflix noted that they would begin charging extra for Blu-ray rentals in the "near future" and it appears that time is now.

Although the pricing scheme is not set in stone, it seems that subscribers will see extra charges of $1 to $2 USD for Blu-ray rentals on top of their monthly subscription. The lower price bracket will most likely be for users who receive 3 or less movies out at one time and the higher bracket for users who receive 4 or more.



The pricing is still in "testing" and many users will not see these extra charges for now. I myself am a Netflix subscriber with Blu-ray enabled but have not seen any notice of extra charges.

Originally, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings justified the added charges by saying that "purchasing Blu-ray DVDs costs more, both at retail and wholesale, than standard definition DVDs," and that "consumers are used to paying more for high-definition content."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 2 Aug 2008 15:08

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• 20 comments

• board

  1-2$ a month or per rental? either way it still blows! Was this done with DVD when it was transfering from VHS? I don't remember....
  And I am not exactly sure if I even see much of a diffrence on my 1080 tv with blueray .

  2.8.2008 17:24 #1

• embo22000

  Quote:I am not exactly sure if I even see much of a diffrence on my 1080 tv with blueray .I watch dvd movies on my ps3 and only own 1 bluray title wich is 300 and i don't see a difference but with computer graphics there is tremendous difference so for good cartoons bluray dvds are a good buy but for movies i wouldn't bother unless is a specially good movie and i don't use nexflix i rent from redbox like once a month because there's only crap out there they need to start making better movies or start importing more titles.

  2.8.2008 18:42 #2

• TypeRice

  Quote:I watch dvd movies on my ps3 and only own 1 bluray title wich is 300It depends what kind of TV you have because watching my PS3 with 1080p resolution I notice a big difference.

  2.8.2008 21:47 #3

• ZippyDSM

  I see the difrance but tis not worth the extra 200-2000 for it.

  3.8.2008 02:35 #4

• Hunt720

  I find that movies that have special effects, and movies with a sci-fi or CG element to them are way better on Blu-ray or in HD in general... I dont seem to benefit as much from comedies or movies that aren't focused/centered around visuals..
  
  But even then, I still notice a distinct difference with 1080p resolution and the visual quality alone (not mentioning the audio) is worth a few extra bucks for me. But NOT for EVERY film.

  3.8.2008 03:05 #5

• ZippyDSM

  Hunt720
  it comes down to what you can afford to do.
  I can't aford it nor would I seek to put alot of money into that, a 30inch HD montioer for my PC perhaps but not a TV setup :P

  3.8.2008 04:41 #6

• Footie979

  If they're going to do this, I want more copies of new Blu-ray releases. I'm sick and tired of seeing "Long Wait" and "Very Long Wait."

  3.8.2008 11:40 #7

• board

  I AGREE! maybe that is why I have not seen any charges for it yet. who knows. ... All I know is I dont want 1-2 dollar fees per movie. that would be a waste... I would rather goto my local video store then.

  3.8.2008 13:05 #8

• eandtc

  Quote:If they're going to do this, I want more copies of new Blu-ray releases. I'm sick and tired of seeing "Long Wait" and "Very Long Wait."
  Well, since the announcement talks about the higher cost of Blu-Ray movies, the extra fees would presumably be for buying more discs.

  3.8.2008 17:48 #9

• engage16

  I'm pretty sure thats per month not per movie...

  3.8.2008 18:45 #10

• jookycola

  the $1 or $2 charge is once a month. I know this, because after reading this i looked at my billing history and i was charged 1 extra dollar this month...and i have rented about 10 Blu-ray discs already.
  
  I agree i don't see a huge difference either on my ps3. So i went back to renting normal DVD's anyway. I only rent BD movies if it's something that demands a better picture.

  3.8.2008 21:54 #11

• sgriesch

  Originally posted by jookycola: the $1 or $2 charge is once a month. I know this, because after reading this i looked at my billing history and i was charged 1 extra dollar this month...and i have rented about 10 Blu-ray discs already.
  I sure hope they give a notice before charging. If it's set up on a credit card like mine is, then some people won't even notice it. I haven't seen anything about this on my account from Netflix.

  4.8.2008 13:24 #12

• adamryer

  I just bought a 37" toshiba lcd and a blu ray drive for my comp so im looking forward to watching a blu ray movie for the first time! I ordered 300 and casino royale both in bluray from netflix and there was no delay but they are older titles. I will gladly pay $1 a month more for blu ray simply because I watch alot of action movies and they seem to look better on blu ray than they do on an upconverted sd dvd. I think it simply comes down to the viewer, if you notice a big difference in the picture quality then pay the extra dollar, if not then stick to upconverted dvds.

  5.8.2008 22:07 #13

• 3597439

  This is totally unwarranted on Netflix’s part. There is no more reason to charge extra for the rental of a Blu-ray DVD than a “Criterion Collection” regular DVD, all of which retail for at least $40 and up – far more than many Blu-ray DVDs. And does anyone think that an outfit such as Netflix is paying retail for the DVDs – standard or Blu-ray – that it purchases. What this is – is just a pretext to jack-up prices, pure and simple.

  5.8.2008 23:15 #14

• nopcbs

  Yet another nail in the coffin of Blu Ray. It's a walking corpse.

  5.8.2008 23:26 #15

• nopcbs

  Yet another nail in the coffin of Blu Ray. It's a walking corpse.

  5.8.2008 23:26 #16

• omegaman7

  Their just taking advantage of the new era, nothing more! I wont even look at bluray, much less touch it. Their prices need to drop BIG TIME before i'll even give it a second thought. Movies are expensive, Blank media is REDICULOUS!!!

  6.8.2008 07:49 #17

• Zerxez

  LOL of course the blank media is over priced. Blu-Ray is owned by SONY the big deal on winning the war over HD media was about control of that media. Since Sony owns it they can set the royalty on blank media to ensure that the price remains so high that it doesn't get used for backing up movies.
  Blu-Ray is a dead end because eventually even hard drive space will be cheaper per GB of storage than Blu-Ray.
  Peeps will be more inclined to get their movies over the internet than via disk.

  6.8.2008 11:52 #18

• Gnawnivek

  Yeah, definitely blows... Netflix is my favorite place for Blu-rays now, i hope they don't jack up the rental price.
  
  For viewers can't tell the difference between Standard DVDs and BDs, sorry, either you're sitting way too far from the TV or you're using the same composite cable for both players, lol.
  
  Like i said before, watching a movie costs you time, so why not maximize your investment? Of course, if you can't find the movie on BD, that's a different problem. Besides, i love the multiple language tracks and subtitles on most BDs, it's awesome!

  6.8.2008 12:19 #19

• sgriesch

  It seems fair to me. $1/month to get the more expensive/higher quality version. If that offsets the cost, at least they are charging the individuals who are using the product - not everyone else.

  6.8.2008 13:26 #20