Digital Home Thoughts: Netflix Turning the Screws on Blu-ray Users

"Less than six months after Netflix imposed a $1 surcharge for Blu-ray lovers, the company has decided to jack up its rates once again. In an e-mail sent to subscribers today, Netflix said that it would be raising its Blu-ray access charge to as much as $9 per month on top of a normal subscription rate. The changes will go into effect on customers' billing statements on or after April 27, 2009 unless they remove the option from their accounts."

I have not received my e-mail yet, but I'm not particularly pleased by this. On my plan, this amounts to a 4x increase in the Blu-ray surcharge. Given that less than 25% of the movies in my queue are even available on Blu-ray, I just can't justify the extra cost and will be cutting the Blu-ray option from my account. Regardless of whether you think the cost is justified, I think this is a marketing blunder. By setting the surcharge at $1 last year, they set an expectation as to what the pricing structure should be and making such a massive change so quickly is bound to peeve off some users.