Netflix: Greed is Good

That would kill their entire customer base. What’s the point of a streaming service if I can’t access it from a car or plane?

 

What’s wrong with charging college students? When you move out of your parents’ house, you have to pay for your own utilities. I’m not going to feel bad that eight guys sharing a house have to pony up $3/month to watch TV.

Regan’s point is the one that concerns me most. If I, as a paying user, can’t watch my streaming wherever I want, that’s going to be an issue.

 

Lol. College students don't have TVs. They watch on their device. And if I'm paying tens of thousands of dollars for my daughter's education, she can stay on my Netflix.

 

Exactly.

 

Seriously? What does your daughter’s education have to do with Netflix’s business?

 

Oh, and I’m well aware that everyone, not just college students, use devices besides their TVs to consume media. Don’t act like I’m an idiot.

“Pony up $3/month to watch screen” just didn’t roll off the tongue. Can we agree that “watching TV” works as a catch-all for whichever device you use to consume your films/tv shows and not play stupid semantic games to distract from the discussion?

 

this might be true if it were still $9.99 a month but if you’re paying for the high tier and for 5 screens and they take away those screens that’s crap. They’re not going to drop the price in turn

 

Agreed. But that article doesn’t mention taking away screens. It says they are testing a plan allowing people to add two users outside their household for $3/month.

How they differentiate between screens and users and in the same household vs outside households, I’m not sure. That’s probably the biggest challenge.

 

On college kids too, if the governments puts ‘em in my household for tax purposes and health insurance who is Netflix to say well ackshtually no

 

Same household, same money. I'd be happy to drop back and give her a single screen and us a single screen and Netflix would make less off of us. I don't think it's unreasonable that my college student stays on my Netflix because I am currently supporting her and she is a member of our household.

 

Your adult college student is not in your household if she’s living elsewhere. There’s no other utility that would provide their services to her outside of your home because you pay her tuition. And it would be ludicrous to expect them to do so.

Can I ask what plan you are on? Because if this plan does come to the U.S., it sounds like you would be able to do exactly what you just suggested, based on the structure they’re testing in Costa Rica. You could drop to the basic plan (1 screen) for $10/month and add her for $3/month, which is less than the $15/month Netflix currently charges for its 2-screen tier.

All of that said, you and your daughter are not Netflix’s target with this. They’re targeting the people who share their password with everyone they know and Netflix gets one subscriber while eight unrelated people are watching their content.

 

Who is Verizon to say no? National Grid? Should they provide your kids with cable, internet, heat and electricity at another home because you can deduct them on your taxes?