Andre Yoskowitz
2 Aug 2008 15:08
In April, Netflix noted that they would begin charging extra for Blu-ray rentals in the "near future" and it appears that time is now.
Although the pricing scheme is not set in stone, it seems that subscribers will see extra charges of $1 to $2 USD for Blu-ray rentals on top of their monthly subscription. The lower price bracket will most likely be for users who receive 3 or less movies out at one time and the higher bracket for users who receive 4 or more.
The pricing is still in "testing" and many users will not see these extra charges for now. I myself am a Netflix subscriber with Blu-ray enabled but have not seen any notice of extra charges.
Originally, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings justified the added charges by saying that "purchasing Blu-ray DVDs costs more, both at retail and wholesale, than standard definition DVDs," and that "consumers are used to paying more for high-definition content."