Last week, after almost seven years of service, I ended my Netflix account. There were no hard feelings — I still love Netflix and I hope that they pummel Blockbuster and their crappy late fees into bankruptcy — but things change over seven years time.
Thanks to the wonderful world of high speed Internet access, I now download tons of movies, shows, and documentaries to watch every week — more than we could possibly watch in a lifetime, many of which aren’t readily available for sale or rent. With the addition of PiVo in the living room, I can now watch all these downloaded things on our living room television without ever touching a keyboard.
The other reason I dropped Netflix is because of Redbox. You may have already seen these kiosks outside of McDonalds or inside grocery stores. They are DVD rental kiosks. You walk up to them, insert a credit card, and rent a movie. It’s a buck for 24 hours. Keep it an extra day and they charge you another buck. Keep it twenty-five days and you own it. On their website (redbox.com) you can rent movies online and pick them up on the way home — convenient for me as I pass several of these on the way home.
I was paying Netflix $20/month, averaging 10-12 movies a month. Obviously, through Redbox, the same amount of movies would cost us less. To tell you the truth I suspect I won’t be renting anywhere near that number of movies, but if I decide to, the (no commitment) option is there.