Netflix to raise prices

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Yeah... I heard. Streaming is a wonderfull thing. I didn't think I'd take to it, I resisted as long as I could... now I watch it like once a day. Amazing. But it's cheap at twice the price.

Worf

I agree with your last sentence big time. I didn't think I would take to it like I have. But there is nothing like a good cup of coffee, and a netflix documentary to start the morning off. While I still prefer to buy my movies on Bluray, their documentaries are mostly excellent, well informative, and really stimulate an open mind no matter what the topic is.

[ForeverAutumn]

I received this email from Netflix today. Looks like Canadian prices will be held for existing clients for two year.

In order to continue adding more movies and TV shows, we are increasing our price from $7.99 to $8.99 for new members.

As a thank you for being a member of Netflix already, we guarantee your plan and price (excluding tax) will not change for two years.

[Feanor]

I received this email from Netflix today. Looks like Canadian prices will be held for existing clients for two year.

A good thing as far as it goes. I still get a crappy Netflix stream in the evenings and especially weekend evenings. Could be Rogers Cable, Netflix, or my local device which is a Sony Blu-ray player. I tend to blame Netflix because the stream quality seems to vary a bit with the particular show I'm watching.

Also, Netflix selection -- for Canadians -- is pretty rather limited. Recently I've enjoyed House of Cards, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, and Dexter.

BTW, F.A., vis a vis Rogers versus Bell, the former is the only high-speed ISP in my area. Due to old infrastructure, Bell is still limited to about 8 Mbps in my area, (and that's down hill with a tail wind). I get pretty good speed from Rogers ...

[ForeverAutumn]

Your speeds appear to be much faster than mine and I still have no issues. In fact, seeing how poor my speeds are, I'll be calling Bell when I have time to ask them what the deal is. The cost of my internet services is going up on June 1 (I think). I'll be lodging a big fat complaint about that given my poor results on this test.

[Feanor]

Your speeds appear to be much faster than mine and I still have no issues. In fact, seeing how poor my speeds are, I'll be calling Bell when I have time to ask them what the deal is. The cost of my internet services is going up on June 1 (I think). I'll be lodging a big fat complaint about that given my poor results on this test.

Netflix measures that it calls "link speed" which is mainly dependant on your internet download speed; if the link speed is slow, it will send you a reduced resolution picture.

The stalls I experience are possibly because Netflix computes a higher link speed than it can reliably sustain. The question is, is there something causing variations is my link speed? Beats me.

In my experience in London, DSL rarely deliver advertised speeds on a regular basis; cable actually achieves advertized speed -- at least in my neck of the woods. Bell offers very high speed "fibre" connections but not in London: maybe you can get it where you are.

[JoeE SP9]

I'm getting 39.75Mbps according to Ookla.

I recently upgraded to a FIOS connection and I'm quite happy with it.

I also received an email from Netflix promising to keep my rate the same for two years.

[ForeverAutumn]

In my experience in London, DSL rarely deliver advertised speeds on a regular basis; cable actually achieves advertized speed -- at least in my neck of the woods. Bell offers very high speed "fibre" connections but not in London: maybe you can get it where you are.

I can get Fibe here, but it's more expensive and I just don't want to pay more than I already am for internet. My numbers may look low, but I experience very little buffering on my computer and I use it to stream all sorts of stuff, including sports. I'm actually quite happy with my service. But I'm still going to call Bell to complain...see if I can get them to lower my price.

[Feanor]

I can get Fibe here, but it's more expensive and I just don't want to pay more than I already am for internet. My numbers may look low, but I experience very little buffering on my computer and I use it to stream all sorts of stuff, including sports. I'm actually quite happy with my service. But I'm still going to call Bell to complain...see if I can get them to lower my price.

Go for it! Bell and Rogers are two organizations I love to hate. They don't really compete with each other except by advertising, i.e. similar no-so-great products, similar no-so-great service, similar extortionist pricing, and similar relentless advertising and promotions.

I'm paying Rogers over $100/mo. for 28 Mbps and unlimited download. I consider this a gouge. My previous provider, Techsavvy, that provided ostensibly similar service for about $60/mo., but relied on Rogers infrastructure; if there was a problem, (and I had several problems), they usually had to get Rogers to fix it. It typically took 3-5 days for Rogers to get around to it during which I had no Internet. As a Rogers subscriber the work is usually done in a day or so.

We are three heavy Internet users in our house and do a lot streaming and downloads: we need a fairly high level of service. If you can get by with a lower, less expensive service, I'm definitely envious.

I also pay Bell $95/mo. for satellite TV service that includes a fair number of HD channels, a HD PVR and two standard def boxes. Of two services, Internet vs. TV, I'm even more resentful of the latter than the former. The CRTC is likely to require changes to pricing models in the near future, but I'm skeptical that I'll save much money.