(Not Much Of) An Explanation

 The email I got came with the header, "We’re updating our prices — here’s why." It came from Netflix, the streaming service that carried us through the lockdown phase of COVID. It has become quite the fixture in our house, especially for my wife who enjoys a good bodice ripper, of which there are many from from which to choose. We absorbed the monthly cost as our entertainment choices were limited by being shut-ins for a year. Since then, we have found ourselves considering and reconsidering our choice, specifically around the issues surrounding the writers' and actors' strikes. 

Lo and behold, when the writers were able to settle their contract with increases to the minimums scribes can be paid over the course of the new agreement, Netflix and their accountants decided to do the only rational thing: pass the costs on to consumers. I expected this might happen, and when the email showed up, I expected a bit of hat-in-hand shame. Not much. Just a little. 

I present to you here heir explanation in full: "This update will allow us to deliver even more value for your membership — with stories that lift you up, move you or simply make your day a little better.."

That's it. No discussion of the changing business model. No request for us all to pitch in to pay for those nutty writers and anticipating that their actor friends will be asking for more money too. I am not sure how paying more provides me with "more value," but the idea that they are providing me with stories that will lift me up and make my day better is certainly enticing. Are they referencing the Jeffery Dahmer series? Maybe the Martha Mitchell Effect? Or perhaps they are talking about yet another reality show in which people's pettiness and insecurities are paraded in front of us for weeks at a time? 

Netflix's twin CEOS Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos made $34.7 million and $40 million in 2022. I would certainly like to believe that Reed and Ted will be choosing to put a little of their salaries back into the business so that the value of Netflix's lifting up stories can only increase still further. Perhaps they will share some of their compensation with the creative folks in charge of supplying the company's "content," as they like to call the stories that move and make our days a little better. 

Or maybe, just maybe, this is all just a part of squeezing the customer until they've had enough.