Matt's

I feel sort of bad for Netflix. Although today’s announcement was just a boneheaded move that made no sense (unless they’re planning to sell off their DVD branch), I suspect that the reality of their price hikes is that they’re getting squeezed by movie studios.

Here’s what the studios don’t seem to understand: I use Netflix because it’s easier than The Pirate Bay. When you pull your titles off Netflix, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Sure, I’ll check iTunes and maybe try Amazon’s on-demand service. But if those services don’t have your movie, or are stupidly expensive ($2 per episode on Amazon?!), my next option isn’t to go to Best Buy and try to find your DVD on the rack and then pay $25 for something I’m going to watch once. It’s to just grab it on the The Pirate Bay.

But here’s the ludicrous thing — I’m perfectly willing to pay! I don’t go to The Pirate Bay because I’m a sleazy lowlife who refuses to pay for things. I go there when you won’t sell your product to me in any sensible form. If I’m going to purchase the episodes (as Amazon’s service implies), I want to download them to my computer in a DRM-free format and put them on my NAS, because I paid to purchase them. If I’m only purchasing the right to stream them on demand, $2/episode is outlandish. And any way you spin it, $40 for a set of DVDs of a television show is lunacy.