Consumerist
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video wars
DVD Price War: Harry Potter, Star Trek For $10
Walmart announced yesterday that it will be slashing prices to below wholesale on 10 of the most popular DVDs that will be released soon, says the LA Times. Target announced that it will be matching Walmart. Amazon has not yet responded. More » -
Netflix streaming
How To Make Your PS3 Stream Netflix
Netflix isn't dragging its feet as it sets up its on demand streaming service on the PlayStation 3. After announcing the feature last week, Netflix has started sending out discs that let PS3 owners with Netflix subscriptions partake in the streaming. More » -
video wars
Streaming Movies: Best Buy Preparing For A World Without DVDs
Best Buy announced a "a Best Buy-branded offering, available starting early next year," that will stream "first-run DVDs" online directly to consumers, says the NYT Bits Blog. More » -
netflix
Netflix Streaming Coming To PS3 In November
Sony is barging in on Microsoft's territory, having hammered out a deal to stream Netflix movies over the console just like the Xbox 360 for no additional charge beyond the Netflix membership. More » -
netflix
Check Your Netflix Envelopes This Week For Blu-ray Coupon
Hacking Netflix spotted some sweet savings on the inside of envelopes sent out by the movie rent-by-mail service: $50 off coupons that would bring the price of an Insignia Blu-ray player down to about $100 or $150. The coupon expires Saturday. More » -
wizard of oz
Watch Wizard Of Oz For Free Online On Oct 3
You can start watching Wizard of Oz for free online via Netflix from 9am October 3rd to 9am October 4th. The promo is part of the 70th anniversary of Dorothy and the gang's epic adventure. Yay, free flying monkeys!
Netflix.com/Wizardofoz [Official Site]
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blockbuster death watch
Yeah, Blockbuster Is Pretty Much F*#$%$
Back in the day there used to be these things called VHS tapes. They used to cost a lot of money — so there were these places you could go to rent them. The last surviving relic of this bygone era, Blockbuster Video (also known as the company that was almost stupid enough to buy Circuit City), announced in a regulatory filing today that it plans to close over 800 stores by the end of next year. This is nearly twice the number they previously announced. More » -
we are delighted
Netflix Refunds Your Money Without You Even Asking
If other companies were smart, and they mostly aren't, they would adopt Netflix's strategy of having periodic outages then apologizing and offering credits without their customers having to do anything. Whenever this happens (as it apparently did on August 30) we get a flood of delighted emails from their customers, many of whom didn't even notice the outage in the first place. More » -
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old school
Video Mailbox: Like Netflix, Only 15 Years Too Early
I had always thought that mail-order video rental only came to be after the invention of DVDs because video tapes are too bulky and delicate to send through the mail on a regular basis. I was wrong. More » -
search engines
Why Is An Andy Richter Movie Stalking Me On Netflix?
Netflix customer service says that search results are unaffected by sponsorships. Still, that doesn't explain what happened when Melissa Leff tried to add some movies to her Netflix queue: nearly every search she tried brought up the Andy Richter star vehicle Aliens in the Attic. More » -
netflix
Deciphering Netflix Pricing Strategy
If you've found Netflix's pricing pyramid a bit tough to unravel, you're not alone. The cost of renting 3 DVDs is $17/month, whereas 6 DVDs is $36 (16.99 and 35.99, to be precise, but we don't count pennies here). Similarly, 4 DVDs is $24/month, 8 is $48. By traditional economies of scale, this may not make much sense: Getting 6 DVDs costs MORE than getting two 3 DVD subscriptions. And getting 8 DVDs isn't any cheaper than getting two 4 DVD plans. More » -
netflix
Inside A Netflix Shipping Center
HackingNetflix was invited to tour a Netflix shipping center where 50 employees process as many as 90,000 discs a day. Pretty cool. More » -
damaged in transit
Are Blu-ray Netflix Customers Paying Extra Because The Discs Keep Cracking?
Do you rent Blu-ray discs from Netflix? Have you had any show up with a crack on the outer edge that makes the disc unplayable? Victor just wrote to us that he's received several Blu-ray discs lately that are damaged, and he's wondering if it's just him or part of a wider problem. More » -
movie rentals
Watch Out For Throttling If You're On A Blockbuster Rental Plan
Robert's recent experience with his local Blockbuster just underscores how ill-equipped the rental chain is to compete against Netflix and new-star-on-the-block Redbox. Whether Robert has caught them deliberately throttling his account, or he's just the victim of a poorly implemented system, it's not the kind of customer experience you should have to settle for anymore. More » -
drm
Netflix Can't Decide Whether Puerto Rico Is In The USA
Puerto Rico and other U.S. Territories are in sort of an awkward place. Are they part of America, or not? Sure, they can't vote in presidential elections, but they are on the back of a quarter. This confusion has led to problems for Netflix users in Puerto Rico. Netflix will provide them with DVDs-by-mail service at the same price as service in the 48 contiguous United States, but considerably slower. However, they won't let Puerto Rico customers stream movies over the Internet, which would be handy while they wait three or four days for their DVDs to show up. More » -
If we owned a Blockbuster franchise, we'd seriously think about just renting out the space to a bunch of Redbox kiosks. Blockbuster reported a 42% drop in revenue for the first quarter of 2009, which CEO Jim Keyes blamed on people going out to watch movies at theaters instead. Regarding the Redbox threat, Keyes said they hope to have 3,000 kiosks functioning by the end of the year. Redbox, on the other hand, has about 12,000. [Reuters]
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perks
Netflix Offers Not Only Unlimited Rentals, But Also Unlimited Vacation
In this age of decreasing perks, it's semi-refreshing, semi-enraging to discover that Netflix salaried employees get unlimited vacation. Workers can fly the coop for more than a month at a time without checking in. More » -
netflix
Take A Peek Inside A Netflix Mailing Facility
You might want to hum a little of the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood theme song music as you click over to Boston.com to view these photos of what goes down at a Netflix facility. We like how they all wear red tees—they're like Netflix elves merrily providing DVDs to the nation. (Maybe they just did it for photo day, though.)
"Behind the scenes at Netflix" [Boston.com via Cinematical]
netflix
New York, 6:02 AM
Sun Nov 8
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