The Peoria Dispatch

I finally canceled Netflix.  The reason is simple: even with the one-out-at-a-time plan we just weren’t watching the movies.  Our consumption rate has slowed to near zero, and lately we’ve been more likely to be pulled in to pay $1 at a Redbox outside our grocery store than open the red envelope sitting on the counter.  We have used the Roku box attached to our TV to watch some on-demand stuff via Netflix, but that box doesn’t go away and other services are starting to support it.

What surprised me was how difficult it was to cancel–and I mean personally (the process was straightforward).  I’ve been procrastinating for months.  Maybe it’s because I tried Netflix when it first started and have been an advocate ever since (to the point of owning their stock for a while), as I do think their service is great.  It could also be something of a hard reality to accept that I really don’t watch movies any more, and don’t much like to.  For a long time I considered myself a movie buff and watched lots of movies and knew lots of movie trivia.  I enjoyed it too, and had ambitions of building up a nice HD home theater with all the A/V gadgetry one might want.  Well, my Netflix and theater-going history over the past year is telling me loud and clear that those days are Gone.  We’re watching little TV and few movies.  My purely discretionary time is going to different things, and I don’t see that changing soon.

Netflix has done a good job staying on top of new technology trends and their company is still growing.  I think they will continue to do well.  In the event that I catch the movie bug once again, Netflix.com will be my first stop.