Today could be a day of reckoning for the popular video streaming service Netflix. Today is the last day that the many millions of Netflix"s subscribers will be able to pick and choose a pricing plan for the service before Netflix picks one for them. Last July Netflix surprised the tech world when it announced that the company was abandoning its previous subscription tiers that allowed customers to have both unlimited streaming video and one or more DVD mail order rentals per month for one low fee.
Instead, Netflix announced it was separating its streaming video and its DVD rental plans. That meant that if you were a current Netflix subscriber and still wanted both unlimited streaming video and one DVD rental at a time, the price of your subscription fees will go up to $15.98, over 60 percent from its previous price. That price point for current subscribers starts tomorrow, September 1. Netflix will assume you want both plans if you don"t make a decision to pick either the streaming video or the DVD mail-order plans by the end of the day today.
Netflix"s decision created a massive public relations problem for the company last July, with a lot of its subscribers going online to express their displeasure over the move and vowing to dump their Netflix subscriptions entirely. Netflix claims that it was prepared for this kind of public backlash against these changes, and even admitted that for this current quarter it would see a lower number for subscriber growth before returning to its normal growth numbers. Currently Netflix says it has 25.56 million subscribers. It remains to be see if Netflix"s predictions about future subscriber growth will remain true.