When Netflix started in the UK back in January 2012 I was quite intrigued having heard about it a lot on TWiT network podcasts.
I was initially disappointed with the range of films and television programmes, older films and television series, but did give it a go. So I have now been subscribing for well over a year and have certainly watched some good tv series and films.
This month though I have decided to relinquish my subscription. The main reason is threefold, since moving house and changing from FTTC back down to ADSL, streaming video has been a bit of an issue, more so when other people in the house want to use the internet tubes. There has been a fair few times I have cursed Netflix for stuttering, only to find out that my son was streaming BBC iPlayer at the same time! Secondly, I am not really using it very much, I seem to be watching a lot less television as I get older and certainly a lot more selective; this leads into the third reason which is what I am actually watching on Netflix in the main are repeats of things I have seen before. For example I re-watched BBC’s Hustle and enjoyed that, but I had seen that on the TV before. I am certainly not taking advantage of other stuff on there. As for films, they do add new films regularly, but apart from the “B” movie dross that use to fill the shelves of your local video rental place, there are very few films that I want to watch and many of the new films I do want to watch I have found I have already seen at the cinema, I bought the Blu-Ray or rented the DVD from the local library.
So after a little consideration I am going to terminate my subscription and say goodnight to Netflix.
I’m the other way around – I tried Netflix and Lovefilm many times before subscribing to Netflix primarily to see ‘House of Cards’. But, actually, given that my children are six and two it’s worth the subscription just to get access to the whole back catalogue of ‘Charlie & Lola’, etc.
I also like the way that I’ve effectively got box sets on demand. I hardly ever watch anything on the TV, to be honest, but it’s good to know it’s there (wherever I am in the world, via a proxy) whenever I want. 🙂
Finally, James, your readers may find this helpful: http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2013/03/the-100-best-movies-on-netflix-instant.html
It’s a pity that list is for the US Netflix, the UK version doesn’t have many of those films. Is there a UK list somewhere?