Hollywood studios are sick of you renting their DVDs and want you to start buying them again. The way to trick you into this, they figure, is to withhold the discs from rental companies for a month, forcing you to get all antsy and run out and buy them.
What’s frightening for customers is Netflix is willing to go along with this thick-headed plan, PaidContent reports, as long as the company gets its DVDs for half off.
If the deal goes through it will no doubt hurt both parties. Trashing the value of its service, Netflix will lose subscribers, and the studios won’t see the sales bump they’re hoping for since a chunk of otherwise honest would-be renters will either opt for piracy or just sit out the 30 days to rent the movies.
Netflix customers, will you be more likely to buy a DVD or Blu-ray if you’re not allowed to rent it until a month after it’s released? Will you stick with Netflix even if it stops offering new releases in a timely manner?
Netflix Wants 50 Percent Discount Under Release Delay Scenario [PaidContent via TechCrunch]
(Photo: Great Beyond)
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This really won’t affect me personally.
There are very few movies that I want to ‘see’ immediately when they come out on DVD… And those that I do, are usually ones that I want to buy to begin with!
Everything else, I can wait. And my queue has 95 or so discs…
It doesn’t really have anything to do with the first sale doctrine. Most of the time, video stores had their release date, and then retail stores could sell them, and then maybe PPV would release them. It was all very regimented, and studios could get away with charging Blockbuster, et al, $100 a pop for each new release video. After the consumer/retail street date had been hit the price for video stores went down as well, but before that date it was super-duper expensive to purchase a copy. That’s why video rental places had high late fees back then.
Is it annoying? Yes. Does it really matter? Not really.
Look, at this point theatrical films are coming out on discs like 3 months after initial release. I can hold off another month – if I really, really NEEDED to watch the movie, I’d have gone to the theater.
So if I have a choice in the matter, sure, I’d want Netflix to have it day and date, but if not – oh well, I’ll get it when they do. No way I am going to go spend more than my monthly Netflix fee to buy a single film unless I really, really wanted it anyway, in which case the 30 day Netflix window is moot because I would have purchased it either way.
I’m pleased to see that most of the comments are along the lines of “Don’t care, will still use Netflix and not buy more DVDs.” I think the movie industry is a little deluded about the cause for decreased sales. For sure, people will buy certain titles so they can own a copy to watch repeatedly and take time to plow through the special features, but I imagine the average person only feels that way about a set number of movies — the rest they’re content to just rent.
Aside from not needing to see most movies more than once ever, my primary reason for not spending money on DVDs is that I don’t want to end up like my parents or friends’ parents who bought movies on VHS (at around $20-25 a pop in 1990s money) and now can’t pay someone to take them.
I don’t use Netflix but I’d think that anyone who both wants to see a movie right away and only wants to rent it would choose to wait rather than buy the movie.
People rent to save money on movies they only want to see once or because they haven’t seen it at all and don’t know if it’s worth buying. I don’t think anyone who feels that way about a movie is going to buy it, even if they had wanted to see it immediately. No one is going to pay an extra $10-$15 for a movie they may never watch again for the sake of instant gratification. It just isn’t worth it.
I WILL JUST DOWNLOAD FOR FREE AND GET THEM A WEEK BEFORE THEY COME OUT!
a.b.dvd
EXACTLY!
If Netflix went along with the studios’ plan, their/our cost would go up. Then Netflix would *really* be screwing us.
Netflix plan demonstrates that it is going out of its way to get some value for its customers in light of the studios’ plan.
The only way I would agree with this is if my Netflix subscription rate also dropped by 50%.
Netflix does not “screw me” just because I have to wait another month for new releases. I rarely watch new releases and am busy with this other thing called “reality” to really give a s**t. My membership fee pays for itself several times over during the month, and if that is what Netflix has to do to order to keep it that way, fine by me. The one attempting to do the “screwing” here is the the Hollywood pigs who feel they are not generating enough revenue. Screw them.
If I’ve waited for it to come out on DVD, I can wait another 30 days. I had been watching t.v. shows I was catching up on through Netflix until I realized how easy it is to watch them online without waiting for the mail.
I’ll just wait. I have other ways of occupying my time like petting the coon dogs.
@subtlefrog: That last paragraph is pretty much what I said before I forgot to hit the submit button. Now that comment is on the third page
I dont think Consumerist is encouraging people to actually buy DVDs, but they however are overestimating the effect that it would have on the Netflix business.
@anduin1: Although they do have the potential to expand their library some.
Um, Netflix has a shitty selection of watch it now movies.@coren: Some? The watch it now selection is horrible and very limited on a quality perspective. Want a new release? dvd only.
@Hooray4Zoidberg: Possibly, but I think that a lot of people who really need to see that movie within the first 30 days it’s released on DVD aren’t renting that it, if they like it that much or they’re that hardcore about their movie watching they’re most likely walking into Walmart and buying it for $15. So this wouldn’t really drive much traffic to Blockbuster, since for $10 more that person who needs to have that movie now can just go out and buy it.
@lmarconi: I’m not so sure I agree. I mean I haven’t set foot inside a Blockbuster in 5 years so things may have changed. But last time I went all 25 copies of popular new releases for the week were all rented out early Friday night. If you wanted it for the weekend you had to go Thursday night or get there early enough Friday.
I’d assume there is a still a market of people who want to both watch a movie right when it comes out and not purchase it for full price. If blockbuster is renting these day 1 and netflix is not renting them till day 30 many people might consider making the switch back since blockbuster still has their online service as well and provides free in store rentals with their plans. It could be the difference maker for a lot of people.
@BytheSea: They can chose to buy retail if they want and rent em out all they want. If they go by a contract, chances are they get better pricing but have restrictions like this.
Back in the VHS days (before the first sale doctrine?) movies for rent would cost $100+ when purchased by a renal store. That’s not the case anymore from what I understand.