US Netflix fans hit with price hike

Netflix fans were grumbling on Tuesday as the video giant announced they will have to pay more for streaming films and television shows as well as getting rented DVDs by mail. Beginning in September, streaming and DVD-by-mail service that now costs subscribers $10 per month will jump to $16 monthly, the northern California company said in a blog post. Netflix said people will be able to rent unlimited numbers of DVDs, one at a time, for eight dollars a month. A Netflix plan that allows subscribers only to stream films over the Internet will also be priced at eight dollars a month. "We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into separate plans to better reflect the costs of each and to give our members a choice," Jessie Becker of Netflix said in the blog post. "A streaming only plan, a DVD only plan or the option to subscribe to both," she continued. Netflix subscribers were quick to complain that the move was more a price hike than a choice since only a fraction of the service's movie and television show library is available for streaming. "The only way that this is terrific for the customer is if you plan to offer your entire collection available for streaming," a subscriber with the name Scotty Fagaly said in a chat forum at the Netflix blog. "Otherwise this is just yet another way to choke more change out of your customers." Netflix, which has more than 23 million subscribers in the United States and Canada, announced plans last week to expand to Latin America and the Caribbean. Netflix shares were up 1.38 percent at $294.74 in late afternoon trading on Wall Street.