Posted on April 9, 2026 by Aywren

As of this month, Netflix prices are going up again. The lowest price plan – the one that subjects you to ads – will now be $8.99 plus taxes/fees a month. This probably works out to be 10-ish dollars. Don’t know because I don’t plan on sticking around to find out.

I shouldn’t even have Netflix right now. Back in December, I put the account on cancel. However, after coming back from the holidays with the newest season of Wednesday halfway watched, I reverted that choice and told myself I had enough shows on Netflix I still wanted to finish to justify the $7.99 a month (overlooking taxes/fees). I could afford that, even if I honestly watch YouTube far more than I ever do Netflix. I mean, I needed to finish the last season of Stranger Things, right?

I’m already not a fan of paying for a subscription that not only dumps ads into your viewing time but also restricts some of the shows due to having the ad-supported package. There have been a few times I’ve run across shows on Netflix that tell me it’s not available for the package I pay for which I think is preposterous!

As someone who remembers when a non-ad version of Netflix was $7.99 a month, there’s no way they’re getting the new $19.99 a month for a non-ad streaming service out of me! I simply don’t watch it enough to justify having it around. And so, I think I’m finally saying goodbye to Netflix for good as this is a price point I’m not interested in.

In the meantime, I bought a new DVD/BluRay player. Well, I actually bought it during Black Friday of last year, and even invested in a number of DVD/BluRay series collections when they were on sale from Amazon last year. I also picked up some more retro anime series as fairly cheap DVDs from eBay last year.

When sales are hot, you can sometimes get amazing deals on physical media – you pay the cost once and own it for good. I picked up many anime and TV series that I want to dive into, along with a few of my childhood favorite shows. Some of this I’ve never seen completely all the way through as a series, so I have more than enough to watch going forward.

I picked up this Wiscent DVD/BluRay player for about $89 on Amazon sale last year. It has a tiny footprint compared to the oldskool DVD player I own, but more than that, it supports a ton of formats. DVD, BluRay, Pal/NTSC, and even your burned DVD+R/RW. Between those features and the good reviews, I took a chance on it despite not having heard of this brand before. So far, so good.

As someone who very rarely remembers to watch TV in any form, I think going back to collections of series on physical media and a DVD player is the best idea for me. I’ll put aside that $10 every month towards a physical disc of content I will own rather than a streaming service that just keeps jacking the price up and shoving ads into the shows.

If I do ever resubscribe to a streaming service, I’ll go back to YouTube Premium. Update: Nevermind. I just heard the price of that is going up now, too. No surprise, I suppose.

I still have a few weeks left of my current Netflix subscription, and I’ve been working through the last shows I wanted to finish. I completed watching Frieren and I’m halfway through the last season of Stranger Things. There are a few other seasons of shows I’d like to complete, but I’m going to be going to Fanfest, so I doubt I’ll get those done before my sub lapses.

It’s fine, though. I’ve got plenty of other things to be doing!

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