Netflix is raising prices, and many are venting

SAN FRANCISCO - Some Netflix customers called it a slap in the face. Others a betrayal. Many threatened to drop the movie service.

On Wednesday, many of them vented on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere, seething over Netflix Inc.'s announcement Tuesday that it would raise its prices by up to 60 percent for the millions of subscribers who want to rent DVDs by mail and watch movies online.

"I can definitely afford it, but I dropped them on principle," said Joe Turick, a technology engineer in Monroe, N.C., who has been with Netflix for about a decade. He said he canceled his subscription within an hour of learning of the price changes and will give its competitors a chance.

By Wednesday afternoon, more than 40,000 people had responded to a post on Netflix's Facebook page announcing the change, with some saying they would switch to rivals such as Hulu.com's paid service and to Redbox's DVD-rental kiosks.

Outrage bubbled on Twitter, and on Netflix's blog a posting about the new plans had garnered 5,000 comments - the limit allowed by the site's host, Google Inc.-owned Blogger - which included many seething customers.

Netflix said company officials expected the intense reaction.

"Everything Netflix does is with extensive research and testing and analysis, so we expected some people to be disappointed," company spokesman Steve Swasey said.

While thousands complained on Facebook, Twitter, and other websites, Netflix has 22.8 million customers in the United States, so it was clear that many were not upset about the change - or at least not upset enough to complain publicly.

In online postings, a number of users concluded that, even at the higher price, Netflix was still a better deal than competitors.

On Tuesday, the company said it was splitting up its two services, which means that subscribers who want both streaming video and DVD-by-mail access will have to get separate plans that cost at least $16 per month total.

Netflix had been offering both services as a single package that was available for as little as $10 per month. The price changes took effect immediately for new subscribers and will begin Sept. 1 for current Netflix customers.

While the changes will help Netflix bring in more money to cover rising costs it faces to cover buying and shipping discs while licensing more content for its streaming library, they also put off a number of subscribers - at least in the short term.