Posted by Sam Rouse on 02/11/06 19:28

In article <43edf93c.2491703@news-server.houston.rr.com>, spam@uce.gov (Bob)
wrote:

> On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 05:51:31 -0800, Sam Rouse <nospamfun@anymore.com>
> wrote:
>
> >All that this crusade is going to accomplish (if anything) is that Netflix
> >will
> >change their advertising, and/or apply a different monthly limit to each of
> >the
> >X-out plans. If the latter, those who normally rent within Netflix's
> >profitable
> >range will lose out on those rare times when they want (and are able) to
> >turn a
> >bunch of flicks around faster than normal. Either way, the crusaders will
> >have
> >their parade, and it will make no difference as to whether they find the
> >service
> >to be worth the monthly fee.
>
> You are leaving out one important fact of reality, namely that NF does
> not own the rental DVD market on a permanent basis. Someone is going
> to come along and provide what the market wants for the price the
> market is willing to pay.

Not unless they can make a reasonable profit, they won't. Others have tried
already, and failed (unless you don't consider Blockbuster's universally
reported worse service to be a failure).

> If NF was profitable before it began throttling, then why does it need
> to throttle now?

I seem to recall that they hadn't made a profit until the last year or so.

> According to that article referenced earlier at
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060211/ap_on_bi_ge/netflix_throttling_6
>
> NF claims it costs 78 cents in postage alone. Bullshit. That's what an
> individual has to pay for First Class postage. NF has some sweetheart
> bulk mail deal with the USPS. I am not going to attempt to guess what
> the real cost is, but it sure isn't the same as putting 39 cent stamps
> on a letter.

Don't know. Maybe.

> NF has gotten greedy, and that ALWAYS comes around.

NF wants to make a profit, which they didn't for the first several years of
their existence, as they built customer base and infrastructure. 13 discs per
month for $17.99 is still a good deal, even if you don't count the size of the
library and curbside service. What I see here is a handful of folks who, for
whatever reason, have the time and desire to get more DVDs than the majority of
NF customers want. Most folks simply don't have the time to watch more than
that, or the desire to build a giant library of ripped copies that they'll never
watch more than once, anyway. So, my prediction is that throttling won't stop
(or perhaps a limit will be imposed, but I hope not), advertising will change,
Netflix will continue to be successful, and a small percentage of folks will
continue to whine.

> I want to see movies downloaded.

It's undoubtedly coming. Depending on your cable company, you probably already
have on-demand pay-per-view, but I'll bet that isn't the price point you want.

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