Netflix has dramatically raised prices for their customers who subscribe to both unlimited streaming and renting DVDs-by-mail, several months after their last rate increase.

The company today announced it was unbundling discounts for its plans that include both online video streaming and DVD rentals-by-mail.  Under the old pricing, customers could watch an unlimited amount on online content and still get one DVD at a time mailed to them for $9.99 per month.  Effective today, that same plan will cost $15.98 — a $6 monthly increase.

According to Netflix’s Jessie Becker, the company is effectively pushing customers through pricing to either renting all of their DVD’s by mail or going with unlimited streaming.  Doing both will carry a significantly higher price.

“We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into separate plans to better reflect the costs of each and to give our members a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan or the option to subscribe to both,” Becker writes on Netflix’s blog. “With this change, we will no longer offer a plan that includes both unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail.”

That’s not exactly true, however.  Netflix is still selling combined plans, just at substantially higher prices.  A three-DVD-by-mail plan that includes unlimited streaming used to cost $19.99 a month, but will now be priced at $23.98 a month, a four dollar increase.

The new pricing does not include the very steep price increases forecast by Wall Street for unlimited streaming.  Content creators, especially large Hollywood studios, expect to aggressively negotiate for dramatically higher fees to renew contracts for Netflix video streaming rights.  Most anticipate Netflix will need to raise streaming prices to cover those costs in the near future.

Customer reaction?  Overwhelmingly hostile, with many threatening to cancel service in favor of Amazo, Hulu, or even Redbox.

Among the comments:

◊ This is a 60% price increase. Netflix sure has some audacity to think they can get away with a 60% price increase in this economy. I currently have the $9.99 one-DVD plus streaming plan. Sept 1st I will have to pay $15.99 ? Not gonna happen. I’ll cancel one or both services. There are other options (I have Tivo, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, etc.) Netflix has peaked. They are going to blow it.

◊ You can spin this any way you want, Netflix, but it comes down to simple greed. With limited new content on your streaming service, I will be definitely be canceling that and will probably cancel DVD service as well just on principle. Time to sign up for Hulu Plus! Go ahead and change your name to Blockbuster, because with more stupid decisions like this, it’s only a matter of time before you go by the wayside like they did.

◊ 60% increase, practically overnight, to get the same service I get now? That sucks. If I rented more than one or two DVDs a month, it might be worth it, but I only use the DVDs as a fallback when the movie I want isn’t on streaming, and they often take several days to arrive. If you had your entire catalogue on demand, then I could pick between two options, but you’re forcing me (and a lot of other customers) to pay full price for both in the hope of getting one complete service. You already increased prices at the beginning of the year, and this kind of hike six months later is unacceptable. Hulu is starting to look very good.

◊ Congratulations. You’ll probably be losing our household subscription. We’re long-time members (since 2002) on the Unlimited 3-disc plan. We just started streaming more because we finally have a game system set up in the living room. However, with these “changes” we’ll no longer be able to afford both. So why bother to keep either? Thanks, a lot, Netflix. I really bloody hate you. And that’s sad because until this year, I didn’t have many complaints about your company. Why the hell can’t you just leave things as they are? If things aren’t broken, don’t fix them. 🙁

◊ The only way I will be sticking with Netflix then is if they offer newer titles and ALL titles in just streaming. Because I’m not paying 15.98 for what I get now at 9.99. This doesn’t make sense. THe only reason I signed up is because I thought “9.99 a month. I can do that.” but 15.98 a month with my minimum wage job, having to pay for college, gas, insurance, cell phone. I’m not adding an un-needed 15.98 a MONTH netflix bill. Count me out.

◊ So, my 2-at-a-time with streaming and Blu-ray plan currently costs $17.99 (up from $16.99 last year and $13.99 when I first joined in 2008). Under this new scheme, I get no new features or services, but I have to pay $22.98? Um, no thanks… I think I’ve had enough.

◊ The whole point is that we use the streaming primarily and only order a DVD when you don’t have it available for streaming… thus the $2 per month for DVDs makes perfect sense.  You guys have really messed up here.