Introduction
I’m a fan of Netflix. Not a HUGE fan, but I’m a fan at a certain price point, which I’ll get to later. First off, let me say that I’ve actually ‘cut the cord’ now for over 15 years. I was just too cheap to pay for cable. I mostly stuck to network TV for my TV viewing (via an OTA HD antenna), and for the non-network TV stuff, well there is something called the internet. I finally subscribed to Netflix about 2-3 years ago because of my Itunes reselling on eBay (yeah, weird how these things are interconnected, right?) Anyway, when I was scamming the scammers, I wound up with a pretty large 3 figure iTunes balance. And since I was too cheap to pay for music or apps or God forbid, freemium items within apps, I really didn’t know what to do with my Itunes balance.
Apple TV 2
At around the same time, I learned about reselling jailbroken Apple TV2’s. See, back in the day, before the Fire TV became so popular, people COVETED the ATV2. The reason for that is you could jailbreak it, load XBMC (Kodi now) on it, and then load it with apps that let you stream TV, movies, porn, etc for free. When Apple released the ATV3, they made it jailbreak-proof, and so the market for ATV2 kept rising. Well, I think that market has fallen now since people have learned the Fire TV can do the same thing and it’s faster and easier to load Kodi. Anyway, I kept one of those ATV2’s for myself (not for the shady stuff but to stream content from my NAS to my bedroom TV.)
Enters Netflix
So now that I had an Apple TV 2 in my bedroom and a large balance in my iTunes account, I learned that you could subscribe to Netflix on the Apple TV. So I did the free 1 month membership back then. I somewhat enjoyed it, but even for $8, I didn’t think it was worth it. But since I couldn’t do anything else with my Itunes balance, I figure I may as well pay for $6.40 for it since at the time (and even now), you can buy iTunes gift cards for 20% (sometimes even 25% off at Safeway.) So what happens is – if you have an Apple TV and start a Netflix subscription from the Apple TV, then Netflix will be billed via your iTunes account, which you fund with Itunes gift cards that you got at a 20% discount.
So what if you already have a Netflix account and want to get on this deal? Well, first, you play the Marry, Kill, Frack game…oh wait, wrong game…I meant the Buy, Borrow, Steal game. Well maybe not steal… anyway, you will need an Apple TV (doesn’t matter which version – go buy a used one from CL or eBay.) Sign up for Netflix on the Apple TV. Then call up Netflix (they have hilariously awesome customer service reps by the way) and tell them the situation – that you have a Netflix account already, but you want it to be billed to your Itunes email address. Actually, the more I think about it, you may not need an ATV at all; maybe you just need to call them to link your Netflix account to your Itunes email address. So call them up and see what they say. Sorry for not doing the research. If you really want this deal, you’ll have to do your own legwork.
Narcos
By the way, if you subscribe to Netflix, you already know you HAVE to watch “House of Cards” and “Orange is the new Black,” but there is a new series called “Narcos” that you HAVE HAVE HAVE TO WATCH! If you liked “Scarface” (hey, who doesn’t,) then you’ll love “Narcos.” The 1st season is about Pablo Escobar’s rise in the Colombian drug war back in the day. It’s so good I may write a post about it.
I just called Netflix and they told me there was no way to have an existing account changed to be billed through iTunes, regardless of whether or not you’ve created a new account through your Apple TV. I told him I had read reports online of others being able to do it so he went and checked with some other people and they all said the same thing. Have you or anyone you know actually done this or was this post just speculative?
It would be nice getting 25% off and 5x points on my Chase Ink card for buying the iTunes gift cards, it’s not worth the hassle of trying to recreate the watch later lists and viewing history of all the profiles on my account.
Yes, I did it but this was 1-2 years ago, so maybe things have changed since then. If it was me, I’d get an ATV and start a new Netflix account using my iTunes email address and recreate my watch list to save the 25% off, but each person is different.
Also works for HBO http://singleflyer.com/2015/03/09/hbo-for-12/
Ah nice find. My issue with HBO though is that there isn’t enough new content each month. I feel it’s one of those that you can subscriber to once every 3 months and binge watch everything.
I’m using Amazon Prime Video for older HBO content. They don’t have the most recent seasons in many instances though.
Well that’s no bueno.
I’ve been too lazy to switch from physical DVDs to streaming…I may have to now that Netflix is putting out good content. FYI, you should check out the show Lilyhammer – I haven’t seen it, but my dad and brother love it.
Cool. I’ll do that. If you do sign up and don’t have an ATV, go look on eBay for this $140 UK GC for $60 or so. A reader just told me about it.