The Unintended Consequences of Netflix

I recently purchased Netflix, which is an online service which provides access to movies and television shows by streaming on your home computer, through a blu-ray player, or through an xbox-360, as well as DVDs sent directly to your house. I chose Netflix for two reason. The first reason was the I already owned an xbox-360 and pay the monthly subscription rates for connection to the internet through the xbox. This means that I can select and view movies at my leisure using Netflix through my xbox, and the additional cost of Netflix is relatively low. Also, Netflix offers its service at a price of only about $9 a month, which is much less than the costs related to renting or going to the movie theater to view movies. Even if I wanted to upgrade my cable and add a movie channel the price would be about equivalent. The difference is that Netflix provides almost 13,000 movies and tv shows instantly, and has over 100,000 titles which are available through the mail. Almost any movie you can think of. Netflix seems almost too good to be true, and in some respects, it is.
So I sat down, turned on my xbox, and started my first movie. It was called, "Ink," and was a horror movie about a demon trying to abduct a child or something. I got through about a third of it, decided it was terrible, and switched to a new movie. The second movie I chose was "The Road Warrior." This movie wasn't quite as bad, but basically just proved Mel Gibson is crazy. As I continued through my binge of movie-watching, I began to realize something. Regardless of what movie I selected, I always had the option of simply ending the movie at any point, selecting another movie, and re-starting. Also, no matter how many poor movies I had to go through before I found a good movie, the cost for Netflix remained constant. This posed somewhat of a problem for me. Much of the pleasure I derive as a consumer of movies is as a result of choosing a movie which turns out to be enjoyable and entertaining. The cost of selecting a bad movie, whether at the movie theater or at blockbuster, is relatively high. As a result of the higher costs, I experience increased payoffs in terms of pleasure when I do actually select a good movie. By keeping the cost of selecting a poor movie fixed at zero (I can easily stop a movie whenever I get bored and select a new one), Netflix has indirectly removed a lot of the pleasure I experienced by selecting a good movie. In essence, Netflix has flattened my demand curve for movies, making it much more elastic, and extremely reducing the consumer surplus I can achieve through its use.
I have yet to realize the long term consequences of owning Netflix, but to be honest, I am somewhat fearful of what they may turn out to be. I have always been a fan of movies and movie watching, but with the ease at which I can access almost any movie, the incentives for watching are just not what they used to be.

Netflix