It is well documented amongst the thirty eleven hundred blogs I have researched that Netflix engages in something called “throttling.”

This is the term for when Netflix decides, in their infinite wisdom, that are renting too many movies on their “unlimited rentals” plan. It is debated about whether or not Netflix actually does this, or if it’s pure chance or luck of the draw.

Here’s me: I pay to have three movies at a time. When a movie arrives, it is usually because I, ya know, wanted to watch it. So I do. A lot of times I watch it that night, but sometimes it hangs around a few days. Whatever. There are a lot of movies I want to see; some for the first time and some because I like them. So I rent movies, and I watch them, and I return them.

Well all was well and good for a long time. The Netflix warehouse is about 1 day away by mail (an hour and a half if you were to hop in your car and drive there), so we kinda had a system going there. I would pay my monthly dues, they would ship movies, I would watch and then return them, they would ship more movies. (I’ve written about all of this before).

But then, they decided I wasn’t terribly important anymore, or something like that. Now, when they receive a movie back from me (usually the day after I mail it), they show it has been received, but then they say my next movie is “Shipping tomorrow” Or sometimes the day after that. And it has slowed things down.

I thought it was my imagination, but I checked my rental activity:

In march I watched 10 movies. This was when I signed up, it wasn’t a full month – just 12 days.
In April and May there were 14. June we hit 16! July (when I was away on vacation for a week and a half) we still watched 13. In August back to 15.

Lesson learned? I watch too many damn movies. Between them and blogging, it’s a wonder I ever leave the house. Ahem.

So I see you asking yourself: what happened in September?
8 movies. Half of what we normally get to see.
So far in October? (it’s the 18th) – 3 movies.

Now, I can’t lay all of this on Netflix. Perhaps I’m watching and returning them slower. I haven’t the time or inclination to do an in-depth analysis of shipping times. But we’ve gone from fifteen / sixteen movies a month to six or eight. That’s half. And I’m still paying the same monthly fee.

No wonder their stock is up.