How scared are the satellite and cable providers of Netflix? So much so that DirecTV recently sent out a coupon to customers designed to look exactly like a Netflix mailer, except in blue. You know what they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

The coupon, sent in by reader catastrophegirl, gives you $4.99 off your next “DirecTV Cinema” – what DirecTV rebranded their pay-per-view service as a couple of years ago – movie. $4.99 off? Netflix instant streaming only is just $7.99 per month.

This doesn’t leave a lot of design options left for the mailers if DirecTV launches their rumored flat-rate movie streaming service that is supposed to compete with Netflix. Maybe they will come on little DVDs that say Netflix on them and look like real DVDs for Goodfellas and Citizen Kane and when you play them it says, “Just kidding!” and connects you to DirecTV’s service.

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