Netflix: Why We Like it

After years and years of overpaying to watch commercials and waiting for TV shows to come on, I was quite skeptical when I first heard about Netflix. How could there be a company that can offer TV on TV but not through the TV stations? (say that 3 times as fast as you can!) It took me a long time to buy in and to agree to give it a try but finally I broke down. We bought Netflix online and play it through our Wii.

Well after 8 months of Netflix and 7 months of no cable I'm thrilled we changed over and got rid of our cable.

Let's first talk about the money. We reduced our cable bill by $90 a month and now pay $8 a month for the same programming. Not exactly the same programming, it's not current, but it's not too far behind either; the season previous to the one currently running on TV, for example is available. It's got some great old movies and series, it's like owning an online dvd collection. When you watch network or cable programming you are on their clock. Even with a PVR you need to skip thru commercials. With Netflix no it's seamless programming from one show to the next, from one season to the next.

It has changed the way we watch TV for the better. We no longer plan any time around television shows and it's become the last thing on the "what do you want to do" list which is a great thing.

Now when we watch TV we watch episodic television shows back to back with no commercials so we get more content time, can follow the characters, plot lines, and stories more coherently.

No commercials is awesome. We don't have to be subjected to 8 minutes of sales pitches every half hour, no one is selling us anything anymore while we're being entertained at home on our comfy couch. It's freeing. It's quiet programming. It's like being in a theater.

Netflix has changed the types of programming we watch. I now am a documentary lover, I can't be bothered with mainstream programming anymore and I just love their documentary line up. My girl has found lots of appropriate TV shows, movies and she'll even sit and watch documentaries with me. My hubbie is satisfied with the huge variety of content, historical programs and the tv series he's never had time to watch completely due to work schedules, are ones he's loving to watch back to back when he does have time...

The content on the site is increasing constantly and we certainly have had no problem finding something to watch anytime we've sat down to do so. When we want to watch current events we watch it on the internet.

For me it's been a great alternative to mainstream programming. I feel like I'm being given more choices whenever I want to watch TV. One great feature is if I need to leave in the middle of a program, it saves the place where I stopped watching until the next time I go back to that same show.

The price point makes it extremely appealing and I hope that Netflix realizes that one of the main reasons for their success against the big cable companies is the low alternative price point. It would be a shame to see them join those mainstream giants and try to overcharge the public just because they've come up with a product that a ton of people like to use.

All in all we are very happy with our changeover to Netflix and happy that a viable alternative to the commercial filled, over priced cable distributors was found that actually works.

NB. One disadvantage of Netflix is that the programming is not closed captioned ... yet :O(