You Had Me At Instant Watch

Back in mid-July of last year, I wrote about my Netflix usage [or lack of it] and how I loved their service, but was thinking of quitting.

On October 8, 2008, Netflix sent out an announcement to subscribers that they will be charging an extra $1 per month for Blu-Ray rentals. Here’s the announcement:

Netflix Blu-ray announcement
“Thanks for a being a loyal customer. Now we want another $1 per month.”
 

Upon reading this, I thought, “Ok, it’s time to quit!” I mean, Netflix offers Blu-Ray delivery as a free option earlier in 2008 [with no extra cost to mail the disc], then ends up charging us Blu-Ray owners an extra fee each month later in the year. Get me hooked, then tack on an extra buck. I don’t think so. Where’s that cancel button?

Okay, so maybe I’m making a big deal out this. I’ve been with Netflix since November 1999. That’s almost 10 years. Plus, thinking about the actual dollar amount, that extra $1 per month (plus taxes) isn’t really that much, at least when compared to the extra fees that my cell phone company [Sprint] finds a way to add to my cell phone bill every few months. On top of that, it’s not a requirement, as I can remove the Blu-Ray option from my account [shaving off that $1 fee in the process], leaving normal DVD mail delivery and Instant Watch, which at the time were only viewable under Windows. [which I don’t like, since I am a Mac user and rarely run Windows for personal tasks]

Instant Change
Instant Watch on Mac
Instantly Mac – it’s about time

But then came another email on December 3, 2008. This time with good news. Instant Watch is now on the Mac. It’s using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology [similar to Flash], which is actually not that bad and has a very small footprint. Movies are pretty decent in quality and on a decent broadband connection, I only get one or two buffering segments. And I’m watching a movie per week, which is progress for me.

Stick It Out

So while I almost pulled the plug on my Netflix account, I’ve decided I’m going to keep it around for a bit longer. I like getting Blu-Ray discs, plus now having the option to watch movies instantly on my Mac fits my distraction habits. All that’s left now for Netflix to do is offer Instant Watch over my PlayStation 3. One can hope it will happen sooner than later in an effort to keep this Netflix subscriber happier for the long haul.

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