I've heard they went with this new pricing structure because people with streaming were sitting on DVDs for too long.
Actually that doesn't make any sense. I would think Netflix would LOVE people to sit on a disc for as long as they want.
I've had the 3-at-a-time plan for a couple of years. 99% of what I get from them I rip & send the disk back the next day unwatched. Depending on available disk space & laziness, I would get 3 disks in the mail monday, drop them in the mail on the way to work Tuesday, & have 3 more disks on Thursday. Drop those in the mail Friday & repeat. That's 24 disks a month. 24 x postage both ways. 24 x handling & processing.
On the other hand, due to a lengthy stretch of apathy, I had the same 3 discs for the last 8 months. Discounting the $8/mo streaming portion, that means I paid $14 a month to keep the same 3 discs. You'd think at some point they'd send me an email saying "You know what? They're yours now. We'll send you the cases & the next 3 on your list". But no, they didn't. I returned them a few weeks ago & they sent the next 3 on my list, with no other comment.
This is purely an pre-emptive adjustment for expected higher costs. Its been less than a week since Sony pulled most of their offerings from the availability list. Netflix's position here is similar to Southwest Airlines. They were visionaries & locked in a long term deal for a very low price. Now the studios want a bigger piece of the pie, & Netflix is going to have to pay it & pass it along to the customer.
Long story short - I'm probably going to drop down to 2 discs at a time.