Netflix essentially doubled the price of its DVD and streaming video monthly fee in July, angering a lot of its customers. Instead of a $9.99 monthly fee for the combo deal for unlimited rentals and unlimited streaming video, Netflix separated the twins — now charging $7.99 a month for DVDs and $7.99 a month for streaming, or $15.99 for both. The new higher rate kicks in on September 1, 2011 for existing customers, and is effective immediately for new customers. On its blog, Netflix says the new double-price deal is still a good deal, but that’s not what a lot of us think. Enter Walmart, which now has added streaming video to its website. Stream anything for $3,99, rent anything at prices starting at $1, buy anything at $4.99. Walmart is not offering monthly subscriptions, like Netflix, so its program a one-time downloads similar to the iTunes store. So if you are a casual user — a couple or three DVDs or streaming videos a month — do the math. You might find that something other than Neflix will save you money, including the 49 cent Sunday movie rentals from Blockbuster. And don’t we all want to save money.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.