Netflix subscribers get to watch as many online videos as they want

by Brad Linder Jan 13th 2008

It's official. Netflix has lifted its monthly time limits for online video viewing. When the DVD-rental service first added a "watch now" online video option to its service, users could only watch as many hours of video as they paid for their monthly subscription. For example if you had the $18/month plan you could watch 18 hours of video per month. A few weeks ago we got word that Netflix was letting some users know that this restriction was being lifted. And now the AP is reporting that the change is official -- for most users.

Subscribers at the lowest level, who pay just $4.99 per month to rent up to 2 DVDs per month will only get to watch a few hours of video. But everyone else will get access to all 6,000 movies and TV shows currently available.

The change in service should be active Monday morning -- just in time for Macworld, where it's likely that Apple will announce an iTunes video rentals.

[via paidcontent]

Tags: itunes, netflix, online-video

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Colin said 11:02PM on 1-13-2008

Okay, so all they need to do is tie this in with Tivo and we'll be set. Because who the heck wants to watch movies on their computer anyway?

no said 4:00PM on 1-14-2008

unless you have a media center

jondo said 7:07PM on 1-14-2008

almost all young people?

Kevin said 11:06PM on 1-13-2008

I've been using xplorer2 (squared) for the past few years and am very happy with it http://www.zabkat.com . There's a free lite version and a paid version which I use.

For USB drives A43 is the best choice because it's a self contained exe

Kevin said 11:52PM on 1-13-2008

This is the right idea. Stuff like this is what will really cut down on piracy. If you make forms of entertainment legal, easily accessible and reasonably priced, the majority of people will pay.

P.S. Sorry about the previous unrelated comment, it's from a downloadsquad story about Windows Explorer replacements a few months ago. I have the greasemonkey scripts Textarea Backup as well as AutoLogin, and they both acted to submit the really old comment before I could hit stop. Gonna make an exception for this site now. Doh!

Bob said 12:12PM on 1-14-2008

The real news is where this could go when combined with the previous Netflix announcement of having a set top box that gets these (now unlimited) movies onto your TV:

http://www.techconsumer.com/2008/01/13/netflix-preemptively-takes-on-apple-unlimited-online-movies/

Michelle said 2:45PM on 1-14-2008

I'm disappointed that they've committed so much in the way of resources to allow unlimited downloads before they've committed any resources towards adding the option for captions on the videos. As my hearing worsens I find myself relying on the captions more and more.

Last night I was going to watch my latest Netflix movie, The Madness of King George, but the DVD was scratched and unplayable. I remembered that it was available as an instant download, but I had to have the computer volume up so high as to make the rest of my family uncomfortable. Captions would have made the movie much easier for me to follow.

RP said 4:01PM on 1-14-2008

I'm sure they're working on that (subtitles, chapter skip, etc).

But this was a much simpler change (simply removing a limit), with tons of positive PR value.

somestuff said 4:00PM on 1-14-2008

ever hear of headphones?

Michelle said 5:26PM on 1-14-2008

Then how would the rest of my family hear the movie?

Mark said 9:31PM on 1-14-2008

Headphones, with a Y-adaptor. One side goes to your headphones, and the other side goes to the audio input for your viewing device (TV, or DVD box, or external amp plus speakers).

It does sometimes take some extra equipment to deal with being hard of hearing. Get used to it.

kj said 4:00PM on 1-14-2008

This is great news, and as the previous commenters above have said, when it is combined a set-top box it will be brilliant. The difficult part will be deciding what to watch next! I'm always reading reviews but never remember what did well. To fix this I keep a blog of the movies I come across that are worth watching.

http://moviestoget.blogspot.com

applesauce01 said 7:07PM on 1-14-2008

that is great news except for the fact that all of us Apple users still can't even use this feature! for some reason it only works for PCs. I feel this is absurd because we are able to watch the trailers on Netflix but not the films. Does anybody know why they don't support Apple and if they have a timeframe in mind to begin support?

Craig said 8:50AM on 1-15-2008

Uh.. Isn't that what bootcamp is for? Oh wait I forgot that everything revolves around Apple users. ITunes not satisfying you? lol.

Will said 7:07PM on 1-14-2008

Here's why Apple's announcement of rentals tomorrow doesn't mean anything to Netflix:http://www.videonuze.com/blogs/details.php?id=321

Samantha said 1:28AM on 1-16-2008

Thanks Netflix.

That's a great news :-)

zerk said 8:16AM on 2-12-2008

I can't help but feel people want to lose their hair with netflix versus blockbuster. Blockbuster is such a shit show compared to netflix. Best way to fix your hair loss is a random site I found like http://hair.appmaintenance.com

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