There’s been a lot of hub-bub on the Interwebs about the recent price increase coming to Netflix. And by hub-bub I mean a lot of bitching and moaning.

I’m not a huge fan of it but it makes sense for Netflix. Their prices have been reasonable but they’ve been trying to separate streaming from DVD delivery for a while now. With Redbox becoming a huge force in people renting new DVDs, Netflix has gone to the bigger fish — streaming. Understandable. By separating their plans they can manage both worlds.

For myself, my plan had a $3 increase. Not too steep, but an increase nonetheless. It wasn’t like they were charging more for Blu-ray (that charge itself is a bit ridiculous) but it was an increase to the overall plan. After pondering whether or not I needed DVDs delivered (on demand/Redbox/Internet kinda solves that), I switched to the $8/month streaming plan. Done.

A lot of people also complain about the lack of titles on streaming and blame Netflix. I don’t like the selection either but if I had to guess I’d say it’s the studios who are more to blame. They are the ones adding/removing content at a whim and only providing certain seasons of series. (Also responsible for the ludicrous 28 day wait for new releases on Netflix/Redbox. How does this serve consumers? What a pain.)

Anyway, it’s a bit of bummer the prices are up but I’m not high-strung about it. Entertainment is entertainment. Hopefully this will fuel Netflix to aggressively deal with studios on streaming agreements. But again, what a mess.

(This article provides more/better insight.)