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The DVD Rental Race Analyzed
Thomas Hawk writes "Netflix and Blockbuster have been locked in a price war with regards to the DVD rental space. Wedbush Morgan Equity Analyst Michael Pachter has a $3 dollar price target on Netflix and is in contrast bullish on Blockbuster. Davis Freeberg challenges Pachter's thinking that Netflix will be the loser in the DVD rental battle and Pachter himself responds back on his rationale on why he thinks Blockbuster has the advantage." From the article: "Irrespective of what Pachter thinks about the overall DVD rental business, Pachter's seemingly obvious prediction would appear pretty dire for Netflix. Pacther updated his price target for Netflix On 4/22/05 with the new $3 price. If Pachter is right, then we should expect to see Netflix's stock fall by approximately 75% over the next 12 months."
If you know someone who is using Netflix right now ask them about the service? Do they like it?
I don't know a single person that uses Netflix so that's rather difficult. I also haven't heard it *anywhere* other than on Slashdot. I wouldn't even know it existed otherwise.
Now go into your local Blockbuster Video store and ask the clerk there how he feels about his employer.
I have a feeling that they will have no comment... We all know what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you.
Netflix's customers are huge evangelists for the service and they view the service as fun, innovative and exciting -- not bad for a growing company with very little debt.
This guy is probably a customer for this young and new company w/o many subscribers (compared to Blockbuster). I really can't speak either way about it though as I have never used them myself.
Blockbuster on the other hand is a bloated company, with tons of debt, who is laying off it's employees, cutting back their hours, fending off a shareholder proxy fight with Carl Icahn, who has had their CEO recently announce that if he was not re-elected he would resign from the company.
Ok, yeah, it's bloated - along with plenty of other companies out there. I am not fan of Blockbuster and their tactics which include blatant lying to their customers and potential customers about their "no late fees" crap.
Cutting back hours? I don't know about that. I know of a couple Blockbusters around here and they are open the same hours they have been for years. At least you know that the movie rental places are open on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In the long run, all three companies, Netflix, Movie Gallery and Blockbuster will face a tremendous battle to stay alive when Video on Demand becomes widely available, but in the short run, if you agree with Pachter, then you should short Netflix and use the proceeds to buy Blockbuster and Movie Gallery.
I'm not holding my breath for VoD, really, I'm not. Even if/when it does become "viable" I have a feeling it will continue to be expensive and a little bit behind the DVD release dates. I really don't see any advantage to VoD but then again I have ~6 different movie rental places within 5 miles of me. YMMV.
I realize that I am a bit different than most people when it comes to renting DVDs. I'd prefer to buy them. Target has great deals on movies (i.e. Pulp Fiction with extended crap for $10 and many random titles for $7.50). I spend a lot of time looking through the $5 bins at Walmart for movies. I also buy previously rented DVDs which are usually 3 or 4 for $20. I don't frequent Blockbuster as I always feel uncomfortable in their store. I prefer Hollywood Video because of their random titles that are $1 back if you return the movie within 24 hours.
So I really don't care if Blockbuster or Netflix do well or not but I certainly don't believe for a second that the sudden downfall of the rental business will come from VoD. Then again I'm not a market "analyst" blogging away about stock prices... I'm just a movie watcher that doesn't like to pay a whole hell of a lot to watch a movie once.
DVDs are so over.
Either way the consumer wins
As long as the subscription price falls %75 too, I'll be happy.
The Tools Of Ignorance wanna be a tool?
Until its on basic cable.
It's too bad the music industry got music rentals outlawed, else I'd be renting tons of stuff.
It's pretty clear that Blockbuster has the size, relationahsips, channel, and most importantly, money to crush Netflix. Each day that passes is, in reality another day that the value of the company decreases. Rather than "talking with Amazon" or thinking they can get a bazillion dollar deal, Netflix should get off their collective butts and start shopping around.
Who would buy them? Well Walmart is an obvious choice. The current offerring sucks. Barnes & Noble? Target? I'm sure there are others, these are the only ones that immediately jump to mind.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I wonder how quickly Blockbuster returns videos for what percentage of the population as compared to Netflix?
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
Speaking as a longtime user of Netflix I think they will be around for a while given their excellent service and selection.
Well, reading TFA, it would seem that video on demand from cable is in this race, and looks to be the odds on winner...
Comcast being better than a rental company sounds oxymoronic, but its possible. I somehow think there will be more wrinkles in the plot before this falls out to a two horse race.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Anyone remember Henry Blodget? These guys are mostly idiots. Sometimes they're right, often they're not, and most likely, it's their recommendation that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, dooming the stock to whatever they declare.
7.5% of Netflix is currently owned by Netflix Co-Founder and CEO Reed Hastings. Given that Netflix stock has already fallen by 60% over the last 12 month and that their stock is currently one of the largest short postions on Wall Street, a $3 price target seems a little aggressive .
Second rule in investment is never say a stock can go no lower. The trip to zero is a hard fall at any price.
First rule, you probably are wondering, is: buy low and sell high.
I can't believe neither service rents porn movies. I think it would boost service considerably. Just keep it on the down-low. Hide it under "romance".
Is the fact that Blockbuster's previous practices of changing late fee's that were outlandish, has pissed a ton of people off. Also, Blockbuster used to not carry a lot of movies because they were too of the wall or "racy" or "sexually" oriented.
s ucks
Blockbuster pissed me off so bad in the 1990's I haven't rented from them in several years, nor would I even consider renting from them if they charged less than half what Netflix did.
Check out the other people they pissed off:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=blockbuster+
I come from a country (in south Asia) where they have anti-piracy laws but nobody abides by them because of the slack law enforcement. Piracy is so prevalent that if anybody buys digital content by paying money they would be considered fools. So the few sites that sell digital content target fellow countrymen settled in Europe or America. Now a handful of websites sell subscription which allows me to access latest movies. I pay about $15 for access to the latest movies which are streamed to me. Please note that these websites are illegal and have uploaded pirated versions of the movies. Now if these guys can do it, why not Netflix or Blockbuster? Why cant I pay a monthly subscription fee for online streaming movies? Its high time that they embrace the available technology.
It would be so convenient for me to just go click, click and watch a good movie. I don't have to drive all the way to blockbuster to get a copy at 1:00 AM.
fuvoo: watch something
A war of attrition (price wars) are a top cause of business failures. Read any guide to the top reasons businesses fail. A war of attrition will be listed.
Blockbuster is a fat cow. Netflix will die by the very sword they have drawn.
Offer what the others don't, and offer it at a good price. It doesn't have to be the lowest. I buy from NewEgg not because they have the best price, but because I get what I ask for and they are quick to fix it if I don't.
The Tivo-Netflix agreement should give Netflix the advantage for a while (assuming Netflix ever gets around to launching this service, which is due in 2005). Tivo is already available in millions of homes in the US, whereas Blockbuster currently has no vehicle for delivery into the home market.
The real competitor would be something like Comcast-Netflix (or even just Comcast). With millions of cable company-endorsed DVRs each storing 80+ GB of video, and assuming 4 Mbps connections to download movies, Blockbuster could easily take a serious hit by the cable companies themselves. This is already available to a smaller degree in the form of On Demand, but imagine searching EVERY DVD every produced through the convenience of your remote control and having access to all titles for $10-15 per month extra.
Hurry up! I want to never have to buy a DVD again!
One of the nice things about BB is the coupons you get via email or on the envelope they ship the DVD's in for in-store rentals (which then can include games) or purchases. I've been happy with their service since the day I signed up, even when having to request replacement discs that were scratched or otherwise non-functional.
Who owns them and how do they figure in this. That seems like a semi-lasting market with VGoD being further off than VoD.
Then Family Video opened up. All their older movies are 2 for $1. On Tuesdays through Thursday, if you rent a new release, you get an older movie free (Older = more than a year old). And their new releases are as little as $2.50, for an additional $0.50 you can rent a title for a week. And they treat customers well, I went there once and, it was my fault I was late and the store closed, and I dropped off the rental in the overnight box. The next day the guy working recognized me and said "jee... we just missed you yesterday, lemme take care of this late fee". No questions asked.
DVD rental stores are there for our service. Guess where I'll be spending my money?
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
I signed up for blockbuster for the freepsp.com website, and their website is horrible. I think since netflix has been in the online rental game for so long, that blockbuster doesn't have a chance. Unless they hire a miracle programmer or something.
Help me get a PSP! Who can afford s
As a user for the last 6 months, it's been great. Great service.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
These are the same people that predicted that Enron and Worldcom were the companies of the future, that Lucent was going to grow forever, that QQQ was the ticket to retiring at 30. Who gives a shit about their opinion? Listen to successful investors: W. Buffett, Peter Lynch, they'll tell you that the best thing to do about analysts is to ignore their predictions. So what does this guy know about Netflix? Has he actually even tried their service?
there's no place like ~
I will always continue to rent. I will never pay to stream. There are a few reasons why. If I rent, I can watch anytime, pause, stop, come back the next day if I want. If the movie is really good, I can watch it a second time for free. I physically have the media in my hand.
If it streams, how long can I pause it for? What if I fall asleep watching the movie, can I replay it tomorrow? What if the movie is really good, can I have it streamed at my buddies house the next day for free?
And here is the last reason streaming sucks. For a rental store, they need to pay rent, lighting, buy the DVD's, pay employees money. And they can charge $2.50-$3.00 per rental at Family Video. So why does Comcast charge more to stream? There is no store, there is no employee. It is just a program streaming it to me. I know it costs Comcast less, but they are not passing the savings to me.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
In Denver, I know of six families that are loyal watchers. I family has a geek in it, but he did not buy into netflix (his wife did).
In pheonix, my little sister does netflix (very much not a geek).
I do not use it, but I also do not use any rental agency (buy the dvd, comcast, and movie in those order).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Blockbuster is a joke. An extremely bad joke. Netflix gives me a three day turn around, e.g., I mail on Monday, they receive it and mail a new one on Tuesday, then I get it on Wednesday.
Compare that to Blockbuster that gave me about a 18 day turn around. About 9 days to get my returned DVDs. About 9 days to get new ones back. It was ludicrous! Here's an even better example: Two months after quitting I get an email saying they finally received one of the DVDs I had sent out OVER two months prior!
Blockbuster is SO bad I seriously think it's a ploy to make internet/DVD rental services look back to protect their brick and mortar stores.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I tried blockbuster and it took an average of 3 business days to receive movies and about the same for them to acknowledge receipt of the ones I sent back.
One advantage of blockbuster was that you could send in a complaint about a non-received dvd or no returned acknowldgement immediately. When I had netflix, they wouldn't even let you complain until a certain number of days passed- I don't know if its still like that.
plus, blockbuster gives you a couple of coupons to get a couple of games or movies at the local store for free each month...
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Yes, indeed, vibrant competition, the miracle of the marketplace, and Adam Smith's "invisible hand" ensure that by golly, no matter what happens, the customer will always win.
The only reason Blockbuster ever used to charge those late fees is because, gosh, it's what customers wanted. And now that customers want something different, Blockbuster is responding to demand.
You can look forward to a ever-brighter future of more and more choice, lower prices, and, of course, better movies.
Because... everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
As a Netflix customer I've noticed a steady decline in the quality of service. Lost disks, wrong disks, longer waits, etc. Maybe they're cutting costs or maybe my postman is a film nut.
I too hate BlockBuster, got burned to the tune of $40 after retuning a video to the wrong blockbuster, so the main reason I'm sticking with Netflix is for fear of the dark side. I don't think Blockbuster can compete with Video On Demand in the future, the doubters sound like long distance phone companies about five years ago.
What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
http://houndwire.com
"Wedbush Morgan Equity Analyst Michael Pachter has a $3 dollar price target... "
Is he the same guy who had $90 price target on Enron? No? The same company but different analyst?
If you are naive to still believe in "price targets" and objectivity of "market analysts" you perhaps deserve what's coming to you.
I took Peter Lynchs advice as the best. His whole opinion of stocks boils down to one question: "Do I like their product, their service, the way they treat me", "Will I be buying from them again, and like it", "Will other people like them". He says, if you anwser yes to these questions, chances are you have a good company. Lynch said the best companies he invested in, the big ten-bangers, were companies he really liked, or noticed other people liked.
People can read all about P/E ratio, how fast a company is growing, and the rest. But this will not tell you who will suceed. These numbers should just tell you if there is a red flag, if a company could collapse on itself.
It all boils down to a good product. Price is very important, but if someone sells you crap, or bad service, people will not buy from them, and their buisness is doomed.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
I "rent" my DVDs from http://www.thepiratebay.org/
They always seem to have the new DVDs the day they are released or sometimes days before, and its free. About 2 hours to download per movie, and the quality is perfect. Its even legal because the site is hosted in Sweeden which has relaxed copyright laws.
Blockbuster doesn't understand where their competitive advantage lies (or, maybe they do, but can't use it for some reason). I got their little flyer in the mail the other day. Two options: Netflix-like rentals, or one at a time, unlimited, from the store. But I can't have both. I'm forced to choose between selection and convenience, and right now, Netflix has a better selection and better customer service. If I could combine the two Blockbuster offerings, I'd probably switch, because even though I usually get my Netflix stuff within 48 hours, I walk past a Blockbuster on my way home from work. I could pop in and pick something up on the spur of the moment.
I have to agree with Freeberg. Short of changing their corporate direction like NetZero (not that it hasn't worked for NetZero, emphasising the low-cost pay service over the ad-based free service), NetFlix is always going to have high popular opinion. NetFlix customers are very similar to Apple customers in that regard. They see themselves in a good vs evil fight with a giant corporation (Blockbuster for NetFlix, Microsoft for Apple). Netflix customers are fighting the good fight. Despite this, everyone thinks in the Microsoft business model of "there can only be one company in a given market" Two (or more, and more is better) companies can peacefully co-exist in teh same market. I use Netflix. My sister uses Walmart's service. My neighbor stopes at Blockbuster on the way home from work to rent DVD's because their an impulse item for him. To each their own. I don't see any of the services as inherently better or worse than the other.
Free MacMini
that's not funny...
(muahahahahahahahahaha)
Words of a bright disciple: "If you have to ask, my young friend, then you will never know."
Blockbuster may have plebian appeal, but my money is on Netflix.
Besides, Blockbuster sent someone to jail once for failing to return a *single* rental (the woman simply lost the movie and forgot about it). After hearing that, I promptly canceled my Blockbuster account. No worries with Netflix on that! I can keep the rentals out as long as I want!!!!!!!
So, rent from Blockbuster at your own risk. If the threat of being Busted for failure to return a rental doesn't bother you, if their limited Block of titles doesn't faze you, and if you don't mind their "no late fee" late fee deceptions, then rent from BlockBuster by all means!!!!
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
if a dvd mail rental place exists in SF for example, how will they know it is illegal to rent porn in a specific county in Georgia, that it violates community standards?
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
I *wish* netflix was available here, the way things are going we might end up getting only Blockbuster which, for more 'niche' movies, is really not very good :(
-- the cake is a lie
From TFA "Blockbuster on the other hand is a bloated company" You'd be bloated too if you had over 9,000 stores and kept opening more (Thats more retail locations than WalMart in case you're counting). You just don't get that big without a certain amount of bloat , extra layers of management, etc.
I've been using Netflix for three years, and have absolutely no complaints about the service. I've only had one instance of a broken disc coming in the mail and have had two others lost in the mail, and the customer service response has been great. Got a new disc right away or credit for returning the viewed one, no questions asked. I experience a two day turn around time when I'm done viewing and return the DVD. The website is easy to use, and they have a great selection. This is the best way to rent DVD's and they have instilled in me a high degree of brand loyalty. I would rather see a pioneer like netflix succeed than give more money to Wal-mart or Blockbuster.
Blockbuster seems to have major problems with not having enough copies of movies available. I recently had rougly 40 movies in my Blockbuster queue. Of those, only six were listed as "available." Several were listed as "short wait", but a distressing majority were "long wait" or "very long wait." I checked the same movies in a friend's Netflix account. The results? Only three of those ~40 movies were not immediately available.
Disclaimer: Of course, this is just my experience. YMMV.
"I'm not, like, that smart. I, like, forget stuff all the time." -- Paris Hilton
I completely agree. Blockbuster screwed me out of $20 for "them" loosing the movie I put in the return box about 5 years ago. Now if they had not been down right rude when I went to clear it up, I might have let that and the huge late fee costs slide. But paying for service and being treated like crap was enough for me to never go back (for me when I pay for high priced service it means you are never wrong, within reason, even when you are). If they were the only movie store in town and you could not get a movie any other way I would book trips to china. I feel that strongly.
Netflix on the other hand has "always" been on the mark. Love their service and it makes a trip to the mail box a bit better than an hand full of bills and junk mail.
Don't know if he figured that into his analysis and the fact that people talk and the internet is pervasive.
Hope Netflix is around for a long time to come.
I used both Netflix and Blockbuster online at the same time for about 5 months, I ended up canceling the Blockbuster account, even though it was cheaper, and price is usually a very big thing for me. There are a couple of reasons I chose Netflix. Living in the Boston area, both Blockbuster and Netflix have a distribution center near me, in the same city. Supposedly Blockbuster has a deal with the US Post Office so that when they scan in your movie being returned, they will ship out the next in your list, even before your returned movie gets back to their distribution center. I had this work once in 5 months. Normally it took 2 days for them to receive my movie, so it wasn't a big deal. If I shipped it on Monday, they got it on Wed, and I would get it Thurs or Fri, usually Thurs. Netflix on the other hand is a day faster. If I sent a movie back on Monday, they receive it Tues, and I have a new movie by Wed. I always dropped them both off at a post office on the way to work, and both distribution centers are in the same city near me, so that makes me think its the processing centers at those distribution centers that cause the extra day, although it may be the post office. My second gripe was the web page. I wanted to rent Napoleon Dynamite but all I could remember was Dynamite. I tried typing just Dynamite into the Blockbuster search, and it found nothing. I went to Netflix, and it found quite a few movies with Dynamite in it, Napoleon Dynamite being one of them. The BLockbuster search is terrible. If you don't type in almost the entire movie name it can't find it. The movie selection is very similar, if you are looking for popular releases. For the more obscure titles Netflix has many more. I think Blockbuster pads their numbers a bit, although I can't prove it. I think they count Shrek(Widescreen) and Shrek(Pan and Scan) as 2 movies, that would make up for the lack of obscure movies. Blockbuster's queue system is funky too. Just about every movie in your queue says available now, but its not true. You don't always get the first movie in your list, even if it does say available now. You just get your second choice, and your first still says available now. So the status in the queue means nothing. The 2 coupons a month at any Blockbuster store is very nice, you can use it for anything, including games. I don't go too near a blockbuster store, since the closest one is in the opposite direction from work, but it was nice to use them when I had visitors and we could go rent a game or 2. Thats why I chose Netflix, Blockbuster just isn't ready yet. Netflix has had a couple years head start, so its understandable, but for now, I prefer Netflix.
I used to live in San Francisco, near wher Netflix started, and the service was great, one day turnaround time. Now I live in Albuquerque and the service is not so great. Not only does it take a week to get our movies, they have lost three movies in the six months we have been here.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
It's interesting to note that in the switch over to their "No late fees" program, Blockbuster is now managing to annoy people who return on time in addition to those who return their rentals late.
It's obvious that the late return customers will get upset at the idea of being charged the full replacement price of a movie after seven days after the due date, but the extended return grace period has a bigger effect in that people are keeping titles out longer.
I'm currently on the "movie pass" program which allows unlimited rentals for $24.99 a month, but I'm getting to the point where I'm frustrated enough with movies not being in that I'm looking to cancel and go to Netflix. I'm not alone.
Movie passes result in people keeping movies out longer, but it's also guarenteed income, so the stores know to increase stock as they become more popular. The extra seven day grace period for regular rentals, however, means that demand is increased even more as fewer people are returning on time. Unfortunately, most of the Blockbusters I've been to around her haven't increased stock to counteract this, which means even going in during the middle of the week I'll no longer see new releases back after their 3 day rental period is over.
Blockbuster is trying to push people who visit their stores into switching to their mail rental program, but frankly if a customer is going to go that far, why wouldn't they consider Netflix first after the trouble they're having with Blockbuster?
FIRST OF ALL, AMAZON NEVER TALKED TO NETFLIX. Netflix freaked when they thought Amazon was starting a service here in the states. They weren't. They started that service in the UK. NO TALKS ON ADDING THE SERVICE TO AMAZON. Saying so is just stupid and betrays a complete lack of research.
...etc.
Let's assume for a second that every potential customer does not know that:
1. Netflix' site is better at what these sites do.
2. Blockbuster edits their movies.
3. Blockbuster has a more limited selection (including no NC-17 movies, last I checked)
So assuming that, some famous analysts seem to think that Blockbuster can address their debt and benefit from the bricks and mortar infrastructure. I don't see how this is likely.
Problem #1: Many stores are franchises!
Problem #2: The whole point is to provide these DVD's in the mail. So, as I read it, Pachter thinks they will somehow benefit from these bricks and mortar locations fulfilling online orders from their limited invetories??? Yeah, right. Not the stores I've been to.
And to add to this, Blockbuster has no soul.
They do have name recognition, the ability to shoot new releases out quickly, and a lower price point. But no evangelical fans to tell their friends and parents to sign-up and no pretty red envelopes (I won't go into color psychology).
So, there is at least, no clear f---ing winner. And why does there need to be? Are we really that friendly with the idea of monopolies? Jeez.
From what I hear is that someone stole a list of netflix or blockbuster online customers. And people are stealing there DVD's from there mailboxes before they get home.
I see the whole online movie rental thing crashing. Besides who wants to wait 3 days for a movie that you want now. When you hit up your local video store and go rent it, NOW.
I agree with a 75% loss of the next year.
you should be shot!
Is this really illegal? It seems like a great niche for amazon. Sure its quite obvious that 98% of people renting music will be burning copies, but the same argument can be made for Netflix and GameFly . (Or could be made in the not-so-distant future. ) Is someone offering this? (DRM'd music downloads don't count.)
Some of us don't normally bounce around from competitor to competitor just to get the lowest price. I've been using Netflix for over 2 years now with nothing but fantastic service. And that's the reason why I'm staying with them.
I really don't give a crap if Blockbuster is cheaper, Netflix has been good to me so I'm staying loyal to them.
Blockbuster is better on price, and 2 free instore rentals per month.
I'm dropping Blockbuster.
I went to cancel BB once already, and they acknowledged the poor selection and availability. They gave me a free month. Still going to cancel at the end of the free.
With Blockbuster, typical turnaround for DVDs was about 4-5 days, meaning I would usually get 3 DVDs per week for $18/mo. With Netflix, typical turnaround is 2-3 days, which translates to 6 DVDs per week for $20/mo. For VoD to compete, they would have to price each movie a bit below $1 to make it comparable in value to Netflix. If they adopt the old pay-per-view model of $7 per movie, I don't think they'll go very far.
Recently I have discovered plenty of interesting, free and legal content available on the internet to watch.
Because I have been watching so much from the internet I have cut back on my Netflix subscription.
There just are not that many hours in a day.
Blockbuster stores carry "soft" versions of what Blockbuster considers "hard" R-rated films. They actually carry edited versions of MPAA R-rated films. A film from Bbuster may be different from the version you saw in a theater. Also, they do not carry NC-17, unrated, etc.
Feel like watching Romero's Dawn of the Dead? Good luck finding it at Bbuster.
Netflix on the other hand caters to the film fan. You can get unrated director's cuts, unrated material (very often "x-rated" or worse for those interested), art films, etc. Most Netflix subscribers I know are urbanites with interests beyond the disneyfied and censored selection of Bbuster and Hollywood Video. Even a good independent store can't cover the diverse material out there.
Video-on-demand is for suckers. I want commentary tracks, extras, and portability. 20,000 films on demand...I'm not holding my breath.
Basically, there is a niche that Bbuster won't even touch. At this point it's like if McD's started offering scotch or fine wine. If you like shopping where you need a member card for sales, coffee from trendy chains, and food from cartoon characters, then by all means rent the latest Michael Bay movie from Bbuster.
Netflix has excellent service. I will always pay more for diverse selection and opt out of supporting homogenizing and competition killing corporations like Blockbuster.
Try http://zip.ca/ Those I know who use it are fairly happy with it.
OK, whenever my company issues a generally positive quarterly earnings announcement for our shareholders, our stock drops $2. Actually, it's almost inevitable that when we release any scheduled type of press release like quarterly earnings news, our stock drops $2. Then it's up by $2 about 2 weeks later. Why? Because the all-knowing "industry analysts" like to bash our stock every time and the other anal-ysts and "stock dudes" actually pay attention to them and do as they say, and sell our stock. Then individual investors slowly gobble it back up and the big boys jump on again until the next scheduled earnings news release when they'll sell it again.
Look, we all know that monkeys throwing poop on the wall are just as good, if not better, at randomly picking the right stocks as the "industry analysts" are. Personally, I hate Blockbuster and all their recently evil commercials and would love to see THEM crash and burn. I don't even use Netflix and would love to see them win this "war." But ultimately, who cares what a bunch of "industry analysts" have to say??
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autocorrecting....
I used both Netflix and Blockbuster online at the same time for about 5 months, I ended up canceling the Blockbuster account, even though it was cheaper, and price is usually a very big thing for me.
There are a couple of reasons I chose Netflix. Living in the Boston area, both Blockbuster and Netflix have a distribution center near me, in the same city. Supposedly Blockbuster has a deal with the US Post Office so that when they scan in your movie being returned, they will ship out the next in your list, even before your returned movie gets back to their distribution center.
I had this work once in 5 months. Normally it took 2 days for them to receive my movie, so it wasn't a big deal. If I shipped it on Monday, they got it on Wed, and I would get it Thurs or Fri, usually Thurs. Netflix on the other hand is a day faster. If I sent a movie back on Monday, they receive it Tues, and I have a new movie by Wed. I always dropped them both off at a post office on the way to work, and both distribution centers are in the same city near me, so that makes me think its the processing centers at those distribution centers that cause the extra day, although it may be the post office.
My second gripe was the web page. I wanted to rent Napoleon Dynamite but all I could remember was Dynamite. I tried typing just Dynamite into the Blockbuster search, and it found nothing. I went to Netflix, and it found quite a few movies with Dynamite in it, Napoleon Dynamite being one of them. The BLockbuster search is terrible. If you don't type in almost the entire movie name it can't find it. The movie selection is very similar, if you are looking for popular releases.
For the more obscure titles Netflix has many more. I think Blockbuster pads their numbers a bit, although I can't prove it. I think they count Shrek(Widescreen) and Shrek(Pan and Scan) as 2 movies, that would make up for the lack of obscure movies. Blockbuster's queue system is funky too. Just about every movie in your queue says available now, but its not true. You don't always get the first movie in your list, even if it does say available now. You just get your second choice, and your first still says available now. So the status in the queue means nothing. The 2 coupons a month at any Blockbuster store is very nice, you can use it for anything, including games. I don't go too near a blockbuster store, since the closest one is in the opposite direction from work, but it was nice to use them when I had visitors and we could go rent a game or 2.
Thats why I chose Netflix, Blockbuster just isn't ready yet. Netflix has had a couple years head start, so its understandable, but for now, I prefer Netflix.
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Pachter's analysis doesn't take into account one of the primary factors that keeps people at Netflix: selection. Blockbuster simply doesn't have the variety that Netflix does. If you want anything more than standard Hollywood fare, you're unlikely to find it at Blockbuster. Some people may switch because of the price wars, but for the most part, I think you're dealing with two different customer bases.
I don't know a single person that uses Netflix so that's rather difficult. I also haven't heard it *anywhere* other than on Slashdot. I wouldn't even know it existed otherwise.
You just might if you ever shopped at BestBuy or bought a DVD player there.
A mental excersize - do you think more than a few people just might be buying DVD players at Best Buy?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
When I was living in southern california tons of people both my girlfriend and i knew were using netflix. Now that we've moved to miami there are alot less people here who use it. Of course I saw more netflix commercials in LA than i do here.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cixel
I don't know how much of a difference this makes, but consider the vastly different kind of labor force that Netflix can hire versus BB.
Netflix can hire anyone (and just temporarily too if they want) to push discs and envelopes under a barcode scanner, attach labels, etc. Anyone can do this, and it's a no obligation job. No personal skills needed, or asked. Replaceable in a second.
On the other hand, to work at a video store, you have to be the type of person who likes movies, can interact tolerably with customers, and get crapped on by inept local managers. Must probably pay health benefits eventually, not easy to find replacement labor, and certainly can't just hire someone off the street.
So compare these two schemes. I'd much rather be the first company.
BTW, if you google for "inside netflix distribution center" you are supposed to find a link to a news story from Louisiana about the inner workings of Netflix. But the story was yanked a while back, maybe by Netflix. Does anyone have an archived copy of this??
Netflix, Amazon, Google, Apple and others get this, while, for example, Enterprise Rent-A-Car definitely does not. See http://www.failingenterprise.com/.
The assumption that Netflix does not have physical distribution methods (such as Blockbuster stores) is just plain wrong.
The reality of physical distribution nodes is that Netflix has a lot - they are called distribution centers! In fact they are far better off than Blockbuster in that regard.
Yes for perhaps 10-20 titles you might get stuff a little faster at Blockbuster. However a lot of stuff people rent is not going to be something carried at your average Blockbuster - and then the advantage of Netflix becomes apparent, in that you are going to get ANY movie no matter how obscure pretty quickly. Not just the 10-20 post popular at the moment.
So basically Blockbuster has a lot of distribuition centers, but with poor stock. You can think of it like a really badly run cache management scheme, where Netflix fares much better.
And both are just idling until online distribution takes place in large quantities - I'll bet that Netflix is more nimble in this regard.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
store #06516 hermosa beach,ca back in '97
and yes it really REALLY sucked working there. The number one thing i couldnt figure out was why they would try to sell all that movie merchandising crap but it was a loss every damn month when they would put it at 99 cents clearance just to get rid of it piling up. also i hated how they would have us specifically mislead the customers for their rewards cards and return times.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cixel
With BT and others P2P, everybody in the business' a loser.
...they're in talks with the USPS to have them scan the returning DVD's when they receive them, so that they can send outgoing ones before the returning ones even arrive at the distribution center.
That's an interesting idea, but Netflix could pretty easily match it if they go forward with the plan - just let consumers indicate when they've dropped the disc in the mail and send off another right then.
They already do something simialr if you report a disc damaged or incorrect, they mail off another right away.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I wouldn't want to lick the envelope to send back the used dvd.
Well, reading TFA, it would seem that video on demand from cable is in this race, and looks to be the odds on winner...
I would say that video on demand would be the winner if anyone but cable companies were feeding it up.
The great thing about a DVD is that you can watch it in a lot of places. Cable Video On Demand is carefully protected so you can only watch it in a few. And DVD's are generally a little more random access with more features than any video on demand I've seen.
I agree video on demand will be pretty popular at some point, but I'm not sure it can ever surpass DVD/HDDVD/BluRay rentals unless cable companies can change the way they think.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
C'mon, saying you don't want Blockbuster to run the video rental market is like saying you don't want all the radio stations owned by Clear Channel!
It's like... saying that you want to watch more than the same top-1000 movies which every Blockbuster Video stocks.
Like saying you'd prefer to watch TV shows via rented boxed sets, instead of on cable or by buying them.
Hmm. Come to think of it, all the above are why I'm a Netflix customer. Incidentally, so far the throttling hasn't been too bad on me. I get a lot of DVDs, but so far at least 50% of it has been obscure stuff. I suspect that Netflix doesn't engage the dreaded throttling unless you start choosing the same titles everyone else wants. The contention for titles such as Evil Cult, Stacy, and Mimic 3 is probably pretty low.
And to add to this, Blockbuster has no soul.
Damn! I wanted to rent "Shaft" from them.
I'm a current net Flix subscriber, and I love. I do wonder though. It takes 3-5 days to turn around a movie in the mail. It would take a little more than a day to download a 5 gig DVD to a hard disk over my DSL line to a Tivo like box.
Basically, the first company to figure that out will get my money.
"Failure is not an option, it's part of the standard package"
Frankly I dislike both options.
Blockbuster (at least their retail locations) are terrible. They have a horrible selection that concrentrates only on crap released in the last two months. The prices are insane and the employees utterly clueless.
Netflix has a much better selection, but it's still lacking. I don't get to select exactly what I want due to the list system and quite frankly I'm pretty damn picky about what I'm in the mood for. The turnaround time is also pretty bad. I want to select the movie that I feel like watching now, not a movie that I kinda want to see so I'll leave it around the house for a week or two until I'm in the mood and want to watch a movie.
My local video store, however, has a great selection (though anime fans may appreciate their huge selection I'm far less appreciative when they shove aside horror to make room for it), generally knowledgable employees, excellent prices (almost everything is $2 for 5 days, new releases are $3 for 3 days, a few are $1 for 5 days) and are cunningly located (the main location is next to the cheap pizza place, they're also smart enough to have a drop-off bin on campus). One of the few times they haven't had something that I asked about the employees said "Wow.. we don't have Foo? I can't believe that, we need to order it." Lo and behold it was on the shelf there not long after. It's also the little things. If a film is not a new release, but rather an older film just recently released onto DVD it does not go on the new release wall like so many other locations. The owner once dropped off my lates fees when I went to pay them off citing that they were only a few hours late. Employees regularly let me skirt the drop-off time (ingeniously 7pm so that the new movies are on the shelves when you come by to rent) if I'm a little bit late. They carry porn (though a really crappy selection and heavy on hentai).
I could go on and on, but quite frankly a good local shop will always win out over either a giant, crappy chain or a mail-order service in terms of giving the goods. Now, if you want something really obscure (not everyone is blessed with a store that has their own Troma section or carries the Short Films of David Lynch box) Greencine or some other option might help you find what you're looking for, but I doubt it'll be a primary rental location.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for about a year now, prior to that I got all my movies from Blockbuster. I still rent from Blockbuster on occasion, primarily when there is no other choice - i.e. if someone is over and we spur of the moment decide we want to watch a very specific movie that we don't have. With Netflix my wife and I just queue up movies whenever we think of them and then adjust their order when we feel like watching something specific. We have about 100 movies in our queue right now, we add more every few weeks. We have always gotten the movie we wanted when we wanted. We always get our movies quickly, about 3 months ago it went from an average of 3 days down to an average of 2 days between the time the mailman picks up a movie to the time he brings a new one.
With Blockbuster we always forget to return movies, they've claimed we have not returned movies that we have (twice this has happened!). Half the time they don't have the movie we want, and their movies are NEVER IN ORDER. The staff is often rude, slow, unhelpful, or annoying. There are always lines and screaming kids, and idiots who insist on writing a check and then take 15 minutes to do it, etc. I dread going to Blockbuster.
Netflix is 100x better than Blockbuster - whenever I feel like it I can search for what movies I want, read reviews on them, I can always find really obscure movies, and there lots of TV series you'll never find in Blockbuster (like seemeingly anything good ever made for the BBC). I really don't understand how Blockbuster stays in business, the only thing they have going for them is the immediacy of picking out a movie and having it. I'm not that impulsive though so Netflix is perfect. Compared to how much money we used to spend renting movies Netflix is a really good deal. I would be very suprised if they didn't survive as a business, they offer a great service at a fair price - I think it's just that it's still new to a lot of people so it hasn't caught in a lot of places.
consider that satellite and cable companies are dramatically increasing their bandwidth at the same time as moving to mpeg4 compressed video. within a year they'll be able to offer a -huge- library of movies on demand, many of them in high definition, much more quality than a dvd and long before any hd-dvd stuff is widely available.
the only factor then in determining what wins is how fast hdtv displays is adopted by the masses. the fcc gets to control that when bother to decide if the deadline for hd broadcast should be delayed again.
most people in this country don't care about hdtv, their existing tv "works fine". thats the largest hurdle and thing that will keep dvds popular.
When I started (mid 2000) it was the good old days of the "I mailed it" buttons, so you where insured shipping a few hours after you pressed that button. My record is 28 movies in a single month, with a 4 disk program.
When I cancelled in 2003 according to their own database, a movie was taking 4-5 days to get to me and as much to get to them, with another day or two to ship another one, longer if your "top 5 pick" was not available within 2-3 days.
So a 2-3 day "turn-around", insuring me of a movie a day, and 2 on week-ends jumped to 10-12 days in 2003. I found myself not listening to movies received passed Tuesday just to be sure I had "something" for my Saturday evening; this made the turn-around delay even longer.
Still, at the end I had rented on average a movie every 3 days for about 3 years and still believe it was way worth it.
The real reason I cancelled is following a Slashdot link, an interview with the Netflix CTO explaining how "near abusive" customers like me (bringing almost no profit) where purposely put behind "rare rental" costumers (highly profitable), to be sure they would get a great service and insuring they would stay on board.
I understood the reasonning, but did not think I had to put up with it anymore, since I started to rent at local store on some week-ends anyway. (and yes, I belived I was listenning to way too much movies).
So you are at fault for losing the envelopes, are too cheap to pony up the $.37 (or slightly more) for the postage, but still blame Netflix?
You can mail back multiple DVD's in a Netflix mailer as well BTW.
Netflix rules! Blockbuster blows chunks. When you compare them based on solely economic factors, you miss the heart of the issue. Netflix will win because that's the way it should be.
"Pony up for the shipping"???? Ummm, yeah, that 60 cents is really gonna fucking break you. As for your claim of "Netflix said I was on my own, and if I didnt hurry up, they would charge me for the DVDs" I call complete bullshit! If you didn't hurry up? Yeah, that's exactly what I hear from Netflix when I keep movies out for a few weeks...
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
I signed up for Blockbuster's online service and NetFlix in November 04. I finally got fed up with Blockbusters crappy queue management and lack of movies in stock so I canceled this month despite it being a few bucks cheaper. NetFlix actually had movies I wanted to see in stock and in my mailbox the next day. It was easy to add multiple DVD sets to my queue and reorganize it. That kind of service made it worth the extra 3 bucks. There is a reason why people love NetFlix
Mod me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I am definitely rooting against Blockbuster. Don't forget, Blockbuster has been known for censoring movies -- editing them to make them more palatable for family viewing. Try renting a movie like 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' from Blockbuster or Walmart. You will end up seeing a version that has been edited for content.
Maybe I'm 'misunderestimating' the maturity of the average American, but I think that as long as Blockbuster and Walmart have crappy policies like this, there will be a nice niche for the comparatively corageous Netflix.
I call Bullshit. You can keep Netflix movies indefinitly, and the only thing you pay is your monthly subcription fee. Also, Netflix tells you right in their faq that you can return two disks in a single envelope. So, again... Bullshit.
I don't think the problem is Netflix, I think the problem is that you're a complete jackass...
It's not their fault that you're too stupid to keep track of 3 bright red pieces of paper. I guess they want their customers smart enough to not drool all over the DVDs.
Pony up $0.37... Just think about the FREQUENT FLYER MILES!!!! YEAH BUDDY!!!
Jackhole.
I also have been pissed off one to many times by blockbuster, I will never give them another dollar of my money. I cant put into words how much I hate Blockbuster. If Blockbuster was a person I would urinate on them after making tiney incisions all about their body and shoving rock salt into the cuts... then I would anally rape them and invite alll my friends over to participate. On the other hand I have only good things to say about Netflix I love the service and if Netflix was a person I would give them unlimited foot massages and grill steaks for them in my back yard. I would buy them beer and even give them a ride home if they got too drunk to drive.
I disagree with the opinion of Netflix dying anytime soon. Regardless of stock prices, Netflix has a steadily growing customer base, which is definitely the biggest asset a company can have. They are striving toward profitability, and with their target of 4 million customers by the end of the year, I'm pretty sure Netflix will be here for a while
Nothing against Blockbuster, but they certainly don't have the online customer base that Netflix has, and until they start shipping movies from every store, I don't feel they have any major advantage on Netflix.
And for all you Netflixers out there, give the newest version of my Netflix queue manager, FlixQueue, a spin. We're nearing the end of beta, and we have many new features!
http://www.5hyphen.com/flixqueue/index.htm
Don't buy WoW Gold! Make it yourself!
Review of Comcast Video on Demand from the indiepop list:
,may pass out from monotony before reaching your desired destination; watching two Residents videos in a row (don't ask why) requires 20 button-pushes. And the data is hopelessly falcoed. Like the Goo Goo Dolls? It's spelled three different ways on three videos. Wanna check out Badly Drawn Boy? Look under "D" for "Drawn Boy". They have two Scissors Sisters tracks, one filed under "S.Sisters" and the other under just "Sister". Many, many bands are alphabetized under "The".
If you live in certain parts of the US and have Comcast Digital Cable, you can watch Jens Lekman's "You Are The Light" video on In Demand. Look under "Havoc". It's a scream.
In Demand is Comcast's heavily-advertised stored content system you can call up when you want. It's supposed to compete with TiVo, and with all that horrible free stolen copyright shit on the internets. Alas, for Comcast, it sucks ass.
I'm not talking about the lack of indiepopness. That's expected. I'm talking about how shit the system is.
Most of the programming digitally skips every few seconds. When you navigate the menus, you
In short, it's a hopelessly incompetent system, user-hostile, programmatically limited, and technologically flaccid.
Comcast is a huge corporation, the second-largest cable-tv company on earth if I'm not mistaken; and they have been promoting this service all over the place. But it sucks immeasurable ass in at least seven different ways compared to free stuff maintained by users, like illegal downloading. And they wonder why people don't want to go along with the "professional" stuff. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
On the other hand, on a live channel I just saw a commercial for a new medicine that "may cause vaginal bleeding", so maybe there's worse. I'm supposed to ask my doctor about it. I do believe I will.
--
Steve
Neither Blockbuster nor NetFlix really interests me. Blockbuster is too expensive at $3 a rental when the local supermarket has 24-hour rentals on weeknights for $1. With Netflix, you have to wait for the stupid disks to physically ship back to the warehouse before you get others.
I live on the border between the city and the suburb and can use the public libraries of both. The city library has lots of high quality DVDs that didn't blast the boxoffice. Stuff like David Mamet films and non-Hollywood gems like John Malcovitch's 'The Dancer Upstairs'. The suburban library has multiplex titles like Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise, but even the newest titles sitting on the shelf are about a year old (from opening weekend). It doesn't matter much: last year's Tom Cruise movie is pretty much the same as next year's Tom Cruise movie and 'Buddy Cops VI' isn't a giant leap from 'Buddy Cops IV'.
None of it's really worth a $30/month subscription fee or $3 rental.
Libraries are good places to get old Hollywood stuff that you might not want to rent or purchase when you live on a Technician's budget. Stuff like Humphrey Bogart's lesser known films or John Wayne, Hitchcock, silent era films, and so forth.
Am I cheap? Yeah, sure. Do I give a fuck? Not really anymore. This is the new America, the old rules no longer make any sense.
So you had to pony up $2 for postage? Poor fucking baby. There are people in Sudan who can't even get netflix!
You can up to two DVDs in the Netflix return envelopes also. Not sure why the Netflix CSR told you otherwise (it is right on their website), probably due to the question you asked.
Q.
The only reason I would switch from my lovable but neighborhood one-of-the-last remaining independent video rental stores is that Netflix has stuff that nobody else has. For example, neighborhood store's idea of japanese cinema is two copies of "Seven Samurai"; is I want to rent "Tokyo Story" I'm SOL. I know Netflix will have it, Blockbuster may not. The only question is, it would take only a minimal amount of cash and licensing clout for Bluckbuster to be able to essentially burn obscure stuff on demand and crush Netflix in this regard.
Meanwhile, for film buffs, Netflix is the only choice unless you're lucky enough to live close to Le Video on 9th Ave in San Francisco (http://www.levideo.com/) which is the absolute best video rental place in the galaxy.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
and I love it. I am doing the 8-out at a time plan for $38 a month. They have been very reliable and when I had problems they had everything I needed on the web to fix it. My only gripe would be they NEVER respond to emails.
Cheers, John.
Both companies are bound to fail unless and until they start to supply what customers want, i.e., porn.
The NetFlix/Tivo partnership will put NF back in the driver's seat IMO. Imagine being able to avoid the mail altogether. I have yet to hear anything from BB about such things. Hopefully NF is smart enough to not ONLY deliver to Tivo boxes. It ought to be able to deliver to any DVR. Better yet, just send it to an IP address.
I tired Netflix in 99 and had a horrible experience, but I think that was due to the fact they had one distribution center. After receiving my first 3 movies at once I watched them all and sent them all back at the same time. Netflix claimed they never received them, so I had to wait 2 weeks to see if they would ever receive them, which they never did. I hear they fixed that part of the service now, but I still haven't gone back.
It seems like an inconvenience to wait for the movies to show up in the mail. Truth is, it's actually very convenient, especially if you commute to work and your wife has to drive the kids around to ten different extracurricular activities. Making yet another stop at a video store to pick out a movie, and then having to return to that store a few days later, is a lot more inconvenient, IMO, than waiting for something to show up in the mail.
Furthermore, a Blockbuster store is only going to hold so many different titles. However, I routinely suffered from the fact that my local Blockbuster didn't carry a particular title that I wanted to watch. This happened on enough occasions that I stopped watching rental movies for a while. Netflix, on the other hand, has virtually every DVD ever made.
The above two advantages that Netflix has over Blockbuster will ultimately tilt the scale in their favor. And finally, I believe that with broadband becoming more commonplace and with high compression video (such as H.264, which Steve Jobs has been touting), it's not inconceivable that Netflix will offer some, and maybe later all, of its titles with an immediate viewing option. Imagine digitally "checking out" a movie, watching it as much as you want, and then exchanging it for something else. Or, you could watch a movie digitally and then decide to check out the DVD physically to watch on your TV. There are a lot of options that Netflix could take advantage of to differentiate it from the more limited Blockbuster.
...well, 'loved' is the proper tense of the verb, methinks.
I heard that Netflix was talking to Amazon to provide their DVD service because Amazon didn't want to build one from scratch. (Maybe a bit gunshy from their attempt at auctions?)
I already have like a couple dozen sites bookmarked, and I've tried 5 of them so far. Haven't had any problems with any of them. Selection (exclusive stuff), shipping time and prices changes from one to another, that's why I suscribe to one for a few months, then move on to another.
m
v hqonline.caa l.ca .ca
As for blockbuster, it's an hour long trip for me, their rates are the worst of any video store I've *ever* seen, late fees, they've held one of the kids' DVDs "hostage" until I bring theirs back (put the wrong one in the case), poor selection, they only got like 1 copy of good classics so it's always rented out... I've given up on them well before I started renting online. It just doesn't get worse than this.
Anyways, here's a few, I'm sure you could find lots more if you searched. Every time I do, I always find several new ones... (too lazy to make links, sorry)
zip.ca
dvdhype.com
hollywebdvd.com
davada.co
moviesforme.ca
jurassicdvd.com
starflix.com
cinemail.ca
cinedvdmax.ca
dvd-rent
rentadvd.ca
dvdflix.ca
dvdstoyourdoor.com
relayrentals.com /
dvdzap.ca (in french)
I think futureshop has something too...
A couple adult rental sites I just came across...
avica.ca
dirtyrental.ca
///<sig
For us, Netflix is the alternative to a "HBO" package or equivalent. I get "classic" TV OTA, and "cable" via satellite. For the price of the "hbo" package, netflix is the exact movie I want when I want to watch it. I just rented the full series of "ufo". Try that anywhere else. You may insert your fatally geeky movie or series here. Website, mailbox, website....no investment really in time or hassle. I hope these guys make millions. And, by renting, I'm doing as little as possible to subsidze the morons at MPAA.
So..
:-) If I were to somehow use the algorithm for tcp, I wonder if I could communicate with Netflix efficiently enough to get good throughput.
I've been trying to figure out how to maximize netflix subscription by sharing it with other people. I'm not a big movie watcher and neither is my wife. We would rent about 2 movies a year from blockbuster.
But the idea to share among multiple families who are like would be interesting.
The question is:
How many families needed in order to maximize the amount of movies among the families in order to watch 3 dvds every day so we end up sending the movies back the next day? There's got to be a good algorithm to do that.
Then I would maximize my 25 dollars a month for the maximum amount of pleasure with the minimalist of costs. Baby, I want MAX/MAX/MIN baby.
What kind of network stack would that be?
[Me]
[TV] [Web page]
[DVD] [Warehouse]
[Mail/Link] -> [Mail/Link]
No, something's not right..the request would come from me -> webpage..so maybe it's not exactly a network model yet.
Everyone that I know that uses Netflix are childless. Everyone I know that have one or more children have rented movies at a physical store. You can't ask a five year old to pick a movie to watch, then wait 24 hours (or more) for the movie to arrive in the mail.
Is it supposed to be a date? And in which year? 2004 perhaps?
You know, you can write dates so that all people understand them by using ISO standard yyyy-mm-dd format (eg today is 2005-04-30). Then the majority population of the world won't think you are stupid.
Slashdot:
I get enough spam in my mailbox telling me to buy or short such and such stocks, I don't need to hear it from you. In fact you are doing the community a disservice by mentioning "price targets." Look, the article is interesting enough by posing a head-to-head battle between Blockbuster and Netflix, and a synopsis could have been easily written up that avoided even a mention of stock prices. In fact, that last comment starting with "Irrespective of what Pachter thinks about the overall DVD rental business..." was unnecessary. The last thing slashdot wants to be is a bulletin board for daytraders.
Linux at home
Why can't it be modded Ignorant? I mean, the guy even goes on in his post about how much he doesn't know. Why even bother posting, you yutz? You can't even do basic math. Why are you commenting about things you don't use? I, one among many, love Netflix. I mark my calender when I receive and send a movie, and while they seem to be slowing down the churn slightly I still get 12-15 movies a month for the $17 plus tax; about half what I'd pay per rental at most rental places, minus the hassle of going in, finding something I like by browsing shelves, and then having to take it back. Netflix also has the advantage of their review system, which I find invaluable.
And you, Bill Firstpost, don't rent, don't like hanging out at Blockbuster, and do like lurking in Walmart in your polyester pants, too small t-shirt, and white sneakers, buying movies on the cheap to keep (oops to Own. Own it now on dvd!). Look at your "collection" right now: how many of them have you watched only once? How many of them do you expect to ever watch again? Of the ones you really like, how many have you watched in the last year?
You're not only a nitwit with an empty first post, you're a perfect example of what is wrong with modern western society: a bottomless pit of selfishness and uninformed, unsolicited opinions, living simply to consume, working like a dog somewhere to enrich someone else and distract yourself from how miserable you truly are with shiny trinkets and empty entertainments.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
This is nuts! I don't need no stinkin subscriptions. Ooooh Aaaah, now we can get digital radio, and pay a monthly subscription for it, what a bargain. Wait. Now we can subscribe to movie rentals, and wine, and beer, and cheese. What a concept. Get stupid people to but shiite they don't want or need. Get them to pay for stuff whether they use it or not. This is a recurring revenue model from the heavens. Its amazing to me that there are enough stupid people out there to support it. Wish I thought of it!
People saw the commercial that said "No late fees" and showed people rushing into the streets to celebrate. No matter how often people are told to read the fine print etc, people jump to the most ludicrous of conclusions based on very scant evidence, from a VERY suspect source (a tv commercial). Yet they have the nerve to get pissed for thinking they got to keep videos forever for the price of a rental! Stupahd!
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Netflix's customers are huge evangelists for the service and they view the service as fun, innovative and exciting -- not bad for a growing company with very little debt.
This guy is probably a customer for this young and new company w/o many subscribers (compared to Blockbuster). I really can't speak either way about it though as I have never used them myself.
Umm.. Blockbuster Online is the "young company." Sure, Blockbuster is old, but their online rental business is very new (a reaction to Netflix) and lacks not only in Queue & Family managment features, but also in number of titles available and, from my experience, DVD turn around time.
The only thing Blockbuster leads in is price, which happens to be what I care most about so I've stayed with Blockbuster. That said, I tell everyone who's interested in this sort of thing to try Netflix first, since it's a better experience.
Cutting back hours?...[snip]
He's talking about cutting back employee hours, not store hours. Where they'd often have two employees staffed, they now have 1, etc.
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I had netflix for a good while and I enjoyed their service. Blockbuster had a better price so I figured i'd give them a shot and I was very disappointed. Their site navigation sucks, it takes forever to receive dvds, they have next to no reviews, and their TV series selection is laughable. When I get some extra money i'll be going back to netflix without even giving blockbuster a second look.
I live near Seattle. The turnaround time is 2 days! It's amazing. I can send a movie back on Monday and get the next one on Wed.
Gamefly (which I also have) takes 3 days each way compared to Netflix's 1 day. Gamefly is still a good deal considering my local Blockbuster rents only crap games.
You have 3 copies of Britney's Dance Beat but not a single copy of Katamari Damacy?! Blasphemy!
Yea, I just became a Netflix customer 2 weeks ago. I used their 2 week free trial offer, and after 1 week I went into Blockbuster and canceled my Movie Pass subscription. I haven't looked back since. I love Netflix! I get a 2 day turnaround also. The movies are sent from the same city I'm in, Houston, and I mail them back to a local PO Box. I send a movie on Monday and then Wednesday I recieve a new one.
I had been looking for a movie at Blockbuster for weeks, BR (Battle Royale), and of course Netflix had it. It was a great movie!! I even found some Morrissey DVDs that I was unaware of and they are in my queue.
I LOVE NETFLIX !!!!!!!!
People forget that there is nothing magical about the subscription business. Subscribers cancel - and the more you have the more of them are cancelling. Might as well be selling toilet paper - x dollars to market it, y dollars collected over the average length of a subscription, there's your profit - or not. Very difficult to be a real growth company without a stream of new products and/or price increases/cost reductions - and if you don't have that, at least something defensible so that you can survive.
But - Netflix does not have a stream of new products, does not have defensible pricing, does not have any other 'moat'. Video on demand, whether cable, internet, etc will eventually make them obsolete as they currently exist - contrary to someone's comment, video on demand vs dvd is *not* eBook vs real book - it's my TV vs my TV... Netflix is the Tivo of video rental, and should start to develop partnerships with Amazon, etc, to survive.
Yeah,
You metioned several other reasons I can't stand them. One of my biggest beefs outside the late fees and censorship is I could almost "Never" find a movie I wanted to watch, unless I went there first thing in the morning. And their DVD selection was abyssmal, they still hadn't got rid of most of the vidoes the last time I visited a location 3 years ago.
Netflix, with the exception of a few movies, has always shipped everything I asked for within a couple of days. And I watch a lot of off the wall stuff. Netflix also rules If you want to watch an Entire series, like the Sopranos. The disks keep coming in, as soon as you mail them back.
Does anyone know what actually happened to all the good mid sized chains (roughly 20 stores)? These used to carry a full selection of movies including NC17/X/NR had fewer copies of the new releases than the big chains but also often had:
1) A much better selection of older stuff
2) Usually a few areas where they really excelled
3) Really cheap purchase options for inventory they were dumping.
So what happened to them? Why couldn't they compete?
Gee, I hope not. Blockbuster takes forever to ship the movies. .. Netflix gets here in one day.