UPDATE: No Additional Netflix Price Cuts

UPDATE: There is no across-the-board price cut, Netflix is just running the $15.99 test for a small number of accounts, according to an official at the company who I just got off the phone with. The customer service rep who spoke to me below was wrong. The original story follows.

It's a full-on price war, according to Gizmodo: Less than a month after trimming prices a buck a month in order to match Blockbuster's offering, Netflix is doing it again, cutting its 3-disc-a-month plan to $15.99, making it even cheaper than arch-rival Blockbuster.

This news is still hot off the presses and incomplete: Many customers (including myself) have not received any price cut email nor has it been reflected on their accounts. However, it took days last time for me to receive the price cut message from Netflix. However, note that some commenters have claimed that the discount applies only to those living in the Midwest, and both east and west coasts would have to stick with the $16.99 a month plan.

After many calls, I finally got through to someone in Netflix's customer service center who could confirm some of the details above. She ("Vicki") first said she didn't know anything about it, then did a little research into today's stack of memos and was able to confirm. She then said it looked like the price cut was being offered to "just a few of our members," but later amended that to say it was for "6.7 million members," which would be most or all of Netflix's customer base. She may have been confused about her initial reading of the memo, but regardless, it does seem like at least some people are getting the price cut in the immediate future. She did not have any news at all on specific states getting the cut vs. others not getting the cut.

Even if the price cut is only for some customers, it's nonetheless a sign of major competition in the DVD rental market and a sign of things to come as this battle moves to online video, what with Blockbuster's Movielink purchase and Netflix's move to set-top downloads.

I'll update this post as more news develops and/or if an official Netflix spokesperson ever calls me back.

LINK: Netflix Lowers Prices for DVD Rentals by $1... Again

On a completely unrelated note, this is my 1000th post on this blog for Yahoo! Tech. Thanks for reading!