I have not tried these codes myself so I can’t verify if these codes will work. As I they say on the web, ymmv.

My Money Blog:

Here are several promo codes that should be good for a free $1 rental at all Blockbuster Express kiosks. Expires on 10/13/11. The codes should work once each for any unique credit card number. If I recall, you’ll need to check out separately each time, if you want to use multiple codes.

7650BW8, 65DWTM7, 73MAYB6, 74ABDP3, 97KRFT5, 63SLRH5, 49WHZS3, 24NCCC7

You can reserve movies online to ensure the codes work and that there’s a movie you actually want to watch available. Friday and Saturday nights are often slim pickings! You need to bring your credit card with you to pick up your reservation, even if it’s free.

That would make sense and if it were true, netflix handled it completely wrong. You can see how not only did netflix lost a million subscribers in 2 weeks, but they killed their own stock by almost 50%.

The good thing is I like buying gadgets and bulk food from amazon, and if you get their prime shipping service for $79 a year they throw in free streaming which would be cheaper than what netflix charges for it now. So, I do hope the rumor is true, then I can have the best of both worlds.

Market Watch:

After a week in which Netflix Inc. shares shed more than 38% of their value, one of Wall Street’s most-bearish analysts raised his rating on the company, saying Netflix could be setting itself up to sell its online video-streaming business to Amazon.com Inc.

Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Securities, lifted his rating on Netflix’s NFLX +1.05% stock to outperform, or the equivalent of buy, from underperform on Thursday morning. Pachter also raised his price target on the stock to $155 a share from $110.

Pachter’s reasons had to do with Netflix’s recent controversial plan to split into separate business operations for its DVD rentals and online video rentals, and specifically, what he sees as an effort to make the video-streaming business look appealing to Amazon AMZN +0.04% for a potential buyout.

There’s “a method to their madness,” Pachter wrote in a note to clients.

Pachter said that Amazon has always wanted to be in the video-streaming business, but has been hampered by tax considerations due to state sales tax issues. Most states require companies that have physical operations in those states to collect sales taxes on transactions done within those states.

Amazon has so far been able to get around most of those sales-tax issues by virtue of its being an online retailer. Pachter said Amazon would likely have had to begin collecting state sales taxes had it purchased Netflix outright because that company has a wide network of distribution centers across many states.

However, Pachter said a separate video-streaming business from Netflix is more appealing to Amazon, as the company could still avoid enforcing the state sales taxes, and dramatically increase its own video offerings.

“If Amazon were to acquire only Netflix’s streaming business, it could triple the size of its content library, and gain traction as an industry leader,” Pachter said. “Netflix’s streaming has current content deals that provide it with access to movie content during the premium cable TV window, and Amazon has the financial resources to secure additional streaming rights.”

Netflix offers about 20,000 titles for instant video-streaming access. Amazon currently has about 9,000 TV shows and movies available to stream to its Amazon Prime members, who pay about $80 a year for the service that also gives subscribers free two-day shipping on their orders.

Another analyst made a more mild adjustment to his view on Netflix Thursday. Brian Fitzgerald of UBS upped the stock to a neutral rating, citing the recent sell-off that he says put the shares at a more fairly valued level. While he called the planned separation an overall negative, he added that “we see a potential to sell pieces of the business or partner with synergistic 3rd parties now that the company has effectively separated the DVD and streaming businesses.”

Netflix shares rose 1.7%, to $130.88 on Thursday while the rest of the market went into a tailspin.

The company’s shares have fallen about 38% in the last week since Netflix cut its U.S. subscriber estimates for the third quarter and then announced the plan to split its online video-streaming and DVD rentals into separate businesses.

WKYC-TV:

The backlash from the Netflix price hike is hitting their bottom line. There’s news today they lost 4 percent of their subscribers this month alone.

If you’ve dropped the service, what’s the most affordable way to rent movies?

Channel 3’s Consumer Reporter Maureen Kyle breaks down the prices and options.

Outrage over price hikes took a toll on movie rental monster, Netflix. Since Sept. 1, one million people dropped the service. The bundle deal of both streaming and renting movies went from $10 a month to $16 and the two options were no longer bundled.

Tapping into the popular market, ITunes sells 24-hour movie rentals for between $2.99 and $3.99 for new releases.

Facebook rents you Warner Brothers movies only for the price of $3 and the ever-popular YouTube will rent you free movies for older titles. For a movie still in the theatres, you could pay $9.99 for a 48-hour rental.

If you still like the physical DVD, Redbox movies rent for $1 each.

In store, Blockbuster’s rentals are anywhere from 99 cents to $2.99 for new releases. Their mail-in rental service allowing for as many movies as you want one at a time, and goes head to head with the new cost of Netflix, both at 9.99 a month.

Your on-demand cable prices are going to range from $5.99 to $6.99.

But for the ultra thrifty, keep in mind, a library card gives you free access to some of the new releases and, best of all, it’s for free.

It takes money to generate a customer, so why lose them only to try to win them back. Netflix definitely made a mistake on the price hike or at least the way they executed their plan. Just imagine if they had grandfathered their plans, they probably would have kept customers because some people would not want to quit and rejoin later at the higher price.

I have personally been a netflix customer on and off for the last 10 years or whenever they started. I use to be one of those people who would spend hours at the DVD stores (the Where House, Blockbuster, and Hollywood Videos) looking for something to watch. I actually use to cancel my subscription when it seemed like they had nothing new for me to watch. They now have a hold or suspend option where you don’t get charged for up to 3 months.

Back to netflix being down. I was referring to the numbers they projected will miss their mark.

Gawker:

Netflix Is Getting Slaughtered By Its Own Price Hike
Netflix recently had the bright idea of introducing a big stealth price hike. Profits soared! Actually, no: Netflix stopped growing due to cancellations, cut its subscriber projections, and the stock is down 17 percent so far today.
Netflix is sticking by its financial projections for the current quarter. For now. But it has cut its subscriber projections for this quarter; instead of growing to 25 million total U.S. subs, Netflix will only hit 24 million, or slightly less than the 24.59 million subs it ended last quarter with. That would mark the first quarter in at least two years when the popular video streaming service failed to add subscribers. The decline is driven by people cutting DVD subscriptions, but projections for online streaming subscriptions fell a bit, too. (See the chart below.)

Netflix’s entitled yuppie customers are royally pissed off by the price hike. And we totally get that, because it was slimy of Netfix to dress up a 60 percent increase on its most popular plan as a cut (on a plan no one uses). Still, it’s at worst a $6 per month bump, which is basically what your cable company charges just to insure the little TV box you must rent from them in order to buy their service. For $16 per month, Netflix will instantly show you any number of movies and TV shows at the click of a button, and if there’s a movie not in their library they will mail a DVD of it to you. Many of us obnoxious judgmental techies have become jaded about this small miracle, but it’s still very cool, and Netflix is going to be fine. Assuming the company learns to frame bad news more honestly.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.netflix.mediaclient

I have watched netflix on my ipod touch and was excited about it when it first came out, but honestly I don’t enjoy watching movies and tv shows on that small of a screen.  Of course, that’s just me.  It is nice to have that option, but I think this is more of a novelty which will wear off fast once you download it.

I think if you have an Android Tablet or Apple iPad 2, those screens would be decent sizes to stream some netflix movies or tv shows.

InfoMobile:

Good news for all you Android lovers yearning for a little more Netflix in your life — that is, if you are still a subscriber after the ridiculous price hike. Starting today, every Android phone running version 2.2 Froyo or 2.3 Gingerbread supports the Netflix mobile app. And since both versions of the operating system combined cover over 80% of Android users, chances are you’ll be able to get streaming right away.
Up until now, only a select few Android devices supported Netflix. Seriously, it was a mess. The list of phones grew over time but still left plenty of people frustrated, especially when one of the major perks of the service is its compatibility with a wide array of devices. Netflix is on every computer, every major game console, tons of Blu-ray players and televisions, iOS, and much more, yet it was only on a few Android phones. Go figure.
While the loyal green robots are feeling satisfied, Honeycomb tablet owners are still left in the dark. There’s still no official support for those larger displays, with the exception of Lenovo’s latest offerings. As Honeycomb slowly gains more tablet market share, the probability of a tablet-optimized Netflix app will increase. Then again, there is a workaround.
If you’re at all interested in finally getting some additional bang for your buck, the Netflix Android app (now a legitimate title) is available now in the Android Market.

There are other companies out there that provide prepaid phones and actually some other competing services that might be even cheaper per month vs the new price plan increase from $25 to $35 a month.  I am looking into that now. I am on the virgin mobile beyond talk plan but will switch it back to the 90 day $20 top up plan next month.  I have the magicjack to make calls from my house and I only occasionally need internet access only when I travel.

As for netflix, I already downgraded to the streaming service the last time they raised rates.  The funny thing is I have started to use them less because of this even though I am a movie enthusiast.  There are many free alternatives to watch what I like on Hulu, the networks’ (abc, nbc, cbs, fox, espn) actual websites, and other sites.  There is even a site with channels from around the world.

I think personally for me, I will have to evaluate my usage of both services and see if I really use them because I need them, or if it there just for convenience. I got rid of my cable a long time ago and saved about $100 a month (basic, extended basic, premium channels, and dvr) and now spend more time on things I want to watch instead of mindless channel surfing.

Obviously,  the many smart techies out there have figured out how to install netflix to work on any android phone.  If you want it, then all you have to do is install a file on to your sd card via your computer and it is done. No rooting required.  You might have to play around with the different versions depending on your phone.  It might be a hit or  miss on your phone. The top link is to Lifehacker for different android devices.

How to Install Netflix on Almost Any Android Device

Netflix on Optimus V

Source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1076150

Download netflix-devicecheck-disabled.apk to your computer via:  com.netflix.mediaclient-1.apk is Netflix 1.2.2 (Released 6/15/11)

Move file to your SD card via USB cable.

Run file via ES File Explorer or other file explorer software downloaded via Market

Run Netflix program

Props to Lifehacker.com where I found this info: http://lifehacker.com/5801720/how…oid-device

**I updated this post and fixed the broken link for the apk file.