Netflix Should Raise Prices Again

I know the notion of a considerable price hike sounds insane, but the Netflix of late 2012 is many times better than it was in summer 2011. Better content. Elevated user experience. And mobile is that much more relevant.

I think Mitt Romney is an awful human being for saying what he said about the "47%." Forget that he got it all wrong, what he said and the fact that he would even say it -- it's just plain sad.

That said, you're not entitled to $7.99 a month Netflix. When you stop and think about it, it's really pretty absurd that you can pay so little for so much. I am a light user of the service and it paid for itself in a few hours over the course of a few nights.

Again, positioned properly, Reed Hastings can get this message across and come out better off for it. He might want to remove himself from the situation and let somebody else call the shots and face the public on this one. Hire a celebrity that everybody loves as spokesperson.

However it goes down, mark it down, Netflix will sell DVD and, though I am not quite as confident about it, I sniff a price increase coming as well.

With these two moves, Netflix has more than a fighting chance at survival. Without them, or something like them, I'm afraid I might have to switch last year's bear case back on.

At the time publication, the author held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this article.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

Follow @RoccoPendola

Rocco Pendola is a private investor with nearly 20 years experience in various forms of media, ranging from radio to print. His work has appeared in academic journals as well as dozens of online and offline publications. He uses his broad experience to help inform his coverage of the stock market, primarily in the technology, Internet and new media spaces. He has taken a long-term approach to investing, focusing on dividend-paying stocks, since he opened his first account as a teenager. Pendola, 37, is based in Santa Monica, Calif., where he lives with his wife and child.

« First ‹ Previous 1 2 3