Netflix increases it's prices
Tim Stevens via Engadget
But there’s one problem: after cutting Instant loose, creating a new $7.99 streaming-only plan, Netflix stuck the dagger right in its own side by not re-thinking its disc-based rentals — plans that looked a lot more valuable before than they do now.
Tim makes a great observation that redbox is much more attractive and cost effective for the random occasion you need a disk. Paying ~$2 a month for the random time you need a DVD was low enough that most people would pay it rather than getting off the couch and driving to a redbox. At $8 I believe many users will cancel the disk portion of their plan and go to streaming only and I think this is what Netflix wants. The future of media is streaming not physical media and the faster Netflix can stop mailing plastic circles all across North America the faster they can abandon their mail order infrastructure and use that money on more content deals.
