I love Netflix. other than DVR technology, no single service has changed how I consume video content. The capability to view movies and television shows on demand on many devices for one low monthly price is extremely useful and cost-effective.
In the last couple of years, Netflix has made a major push towards having its platform available on multiple devices including televisions, game systems, set-top boxes, and mobile phones. Along with inroads from other services such as Hulu, this effort has increased the popularity of streaming video content over the internet.
Netflix has consistently adding movies and television series to its streaming service. The only complaint I have is that there are many movies currently released on DVD that are not yet present. I realize that the entertainment industry is very strict with their release windows and that someday this issue may be resolved. I have found myself watching a lot of quality films that I hadn't heard of. Foreign thrillers are one of my new favorite film genres. There are a lot of great documentaries as well that I have watched.
Due to the nature of internet video streaming, consumers are generating much more demand on the connections of their Internet Service Providers (ISP's.) Due to this increase in traffic, there has been a lot of chatter about ISP's enforcing capacity ceilings on the amount of data consumers can use each month. There has also been discussion about implementing structures that charge consumers per gigabyte of usage. Potentially, those that utilize services like Netflix streaming could see higher internet bills than those that do not use the service.
In a letter (PDF) that Netflix distributed on January 26, 2011 to its shareholders along with its latest financial report, they claim that an obstacle to the success of their company is the potential "move by wires ISP's to shift consumers to pay-per-gigabyte models instead of the current unlimited up-to-a-large-cap approach." Netflix asserts that they hope that ISP's do not take that route, and will continue to promote the continuation of the unlimited-up-to-a-large-cap model. They further assert that wired ISP's costs to deliver one hour of viewing over their network costs them less than a penny, and that price is falling. This clearly says that the ISP's motive for pricing with a per-gigabyte model is economically unnecessary.
Personally, I don't want my ISP to charge me more than they already do. Leave my ability to enjoy Netflix alone!
What do you think about ISP's going to a per-gigabyte pricing model? Do you think it's fair? Do the ISP's make enough money as it is? Are you a Netflix customer? Please leave your comments below! I'd love to hear from you.
