We just love when analysts make obvious statements, it makes us wonder why we aren't professional analysts -- Ralph Schackart, digital media analyst with William Blair & Co. states that companies who rent movies digitally have the most to gain from
the recent Warner/Netflix deal. If this doesn't seem obvious to you then consider this. Right now the only (legal) way to rent a new release without leaving the house in the first thirty days is via
Netflix. If Netflix strikes similar deals with the other studios, it'll really level the playing field between physical media and digital distribution rental services. It is obvious now that studios want to find a way
to roll back the 2009 trend of renting instead of buying, but we're not so sure this new window will have the intended effect. Netflix said that most customers won't notice the new window and in our own personal experience, a 30 day window isn't going to make us buy anything we weren't going to buy already. Assuming we are right, the sooner Hollywood figures this out, the sooner we won't have to wait the extra 30 days, no matter what our preferred distribution channel is.
posted January 19th 2010 2:46PM
They want to have people buy more movies? Well, new release $9.99 BD movies would certainly change my buying habits.
Hate Streaming , i dont pay Extra money for Blu ray disc to stream half assed compressed non HD audio junk : )
Good Thing Blockbuster Sent me my New Release WB Blu rays today .. Whiteout and the invention of lying ..maybe be bad movies but at least i dont have to wait 30 days for bad movies : )
I will use netflix to catch up on Shows on BD
@JTD
I agree. We are entering a new era of home theater gear (bigger, better, cheaper displays, better audio gear (if you don't buy junk), and BD with 3D BD coming soon) - yet people are excited to have unconverted DVD quality streamed to their new system? No thanks, give me the real deal.
@JTD I just restarted BlockBuster Total Access and decreased my NetFlix from 3 at a time to 2 at a time...hoping WB doesn't strike the same deal with BlockBuster or else I will have to wait 30 days.
I am stuck in an IFITL neighborhood and cannot get anything higher than a 1.5mbps connection- so streaming HD is not an option for me. If NetFlix is really getting cheaper rates because of this deal why not pass it on to the consumer; especially since our rates increased recently for renting BD.
How about everybody just keeps on renting until hollywood caves in and
realizes that consumers always win because we have what they want $$$
I love streaming it's the future of consuming entertainment i think it's
awesome but hollywood needs to move forward and think of ways
to distribute and rent their library of films or piracy will always hurt them.
So there's a delay, most won't notice since Netflix always delays when they decide to show brand new movies in their "new releases" and no real easy way to see any "coming soon". I have found that using Amazon to find new releases to then add to my queue in another tab works the best and instantwatcher.com is a real nice tool for finding things to add to the instant queue. After years of movie watching I have a hard time finding stuff.
Of course, any delay of any sort sucks. If this is going to start to happen with discs, we're going to need to see a bunch more on instant. I may take mine down to 2 at a time.
Make more catalog instants available in HD, have all new additions available in HD. Enable 5.1 Surround.
Make my Roku interface like the PS3 one, or forget your deal with MS, and let me install the app now.
Also, I tend to watch more TV on instant because you can seriously veg out and kill a whole season or two in a weekend without being stuck waiting for that next disc.
I would have to agree with the first comment. Blu Ray movie prices need to come down and I might consider buying them. I have a HUGE DVD collection, and I got most of them for $10 or less. I have NO PROBLEM buying movies I'm even halfway interested in if the price is $10 or less. The only reason I rent stuff these days is because of price. I will not buy a $15, 20, 30, 45 Blu-Ray. Not now, not ever. My entire Blu-Ray collection were all $10 specials that I was quick to jump on.
Want more people to buy your movies? Lower the price.
I won't care until streaming is always HD, OAR, 5.1 - 7.1 sound, and higher bitrate.
When I don't even have the times to watch "old releases", I don't see how a 30-day ban would affect me. My Netflix queue has grown from a couple movies to over 80 in less than a year. Yea, in the beginning, I almost turned over the movies overnight, but now? My last disc sat on my desk for a WEEK.
There are movies I want to buy and movies I want to rent. Holding back a rental for 30 days is not going to force me to buy that rental title, however it may dull that desire I have to rent the movie by making me wait. Netflix need to convince the studios to start allowing streaming of BRAND NEW titles on the street date. What difference does it make if they have to send me a physical disk or I get it online? I'm still paying Netflix for the privilege to rent the title and they, in turn, are paying the studios from those fees. And if I really need to see a movie on the day it's released - which I usually don't - then I'll go up the street to my local Blockbuster and rent the disk there. If Warners is going to do this with Netflix, then it needs to be an across the board decision. Don't provide rental copies to any brick & mortar retailer either. This deal isn't going to hurt WB, but it may end up hurting Netflix in the end.
There's a great interview with Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos about the Warner Bros. deal on HackingNetflix. Here's the article. http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2010/01/hackingnetflix-interviews-netflix-coo-sarandos-about-warner-bros-deal.html
As I mentioned on another forum, this is just going to make the studios lose money on me. I won't buy a movie on disc unless I've seen it - I've been burned a few times purchasing movies without seeing them. If I saw it in the theater, I'll buy it and wouldn't have bothered renting. If I haven't seen it, I won't buy without renting first. And if I have a 30 day delay until I can rent it, then odds are, I've waited this long, so might as well wait until it hits bargain bin. Epic LOSE for the studios.
I would agree, it's not going to cause people to buy instead of renting. But people are going to go out and rent it, such as from Redbox or Blockbuster. Such as myself, I will take my business away from Netflix and give it to their competitors. Rebox is across my street and also down a block. And there is Blockbuster up the street.
However, because you do have a lot of options with Netflix and with the ease of mail rental, you may also just pick something else to watch. but if other studios follow suit, you will see a shift in business going away from Netflix and to other companies. I know I'm not going to wait 30 days for Netflix if all new release had this delay when Redbox can get it right away.
The benefit of living in Canada and having no options is that the choice is so easy to make.