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Amazon to Enter the Online DVD Rental Business
ChrisF79 writes "Wired News is reporting that Amazon.com is hiring programmers to work with online dvd rentals. From the article: "Advertising for positions based at the company's Seattle headquarters, the listings seek engineers to help in 'building systems and algorithms that must move inventory between our fulfillment centers and our customers in a way that gives customers exactly what they want, when they want it.' The postings indicate they are specifically for an online DVD rental service." Netflix seems to have a stronghold on the market so despite numerous advantages for Amazon, especially economies of scale, can Amazon enter the market and surpass Netflix?"
Of course, if all that fails, they can follow their usual MO and file a patent for the idea of unlimited online rentals for a monthly fee and drive Netflix out of business that way.
-JMP
The only issue I take to that is this: I have to haul my ass all the way to blockbuster to get the video. I live in an oldish city, and the nearest blockbuster is hard to get to. it is usually crowded on that block, and it forces me to parallel park. I would rather just get "back into the mood" to watch a movie that I don't have to drive to get.
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
besides some thing like this makes me very doubtful about joining netflix.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
of course it depends on your taste in films, the rocky box set is £25 in one store near where i work. bought Solaris last week for £4 from Virgin Megastore. Having about 6 stores within half a mile of where i work all fighting to get rid of lots of stock at cheap prices is great. And then there's the (probably legally dubious) ex rentals from my local blockbuster and choice videos offering newish films at low low prices. in this instance i tend to buy really obscure/foreign films that are highly unlikely to have been watched that many times = bargains.
obviously i dont know how well this all translates across the pond but basically i hardly ever rent and when i do it's because it's 7pm and me and the missus are a bit bored of my japanese samurai film collection and she sends me to the video store to find something "girly". we dont go online and find something to watch in a couple of days.
but having said that i'm far too tight to fork out the cash for the stanley kubrik boxed set. now i might be tempted to rent THAT for a few quid, a whole weekend of kubrik and post it back. handy. think i just defeated my own point!
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
...at least for Comcast.
When I'm not blowing $18-21 at a time to rent a whole season of a tv show at the local video store(yes, I know I should go netflix), I give Comcast VOD a try.
So let's go watch Constantine.. Wait, it's not listed. Okay, let's go watch Hellboy..wait. No, wait, the only have bottom-of-the box office barrel movies available.
Comcast's offerings of VOD is incredibly pathetic for being such a mega-corp. You would think DVD distributors would lend them a few episodes of a TV show they just released for free viewing. Then,if you like the show so much you could buy it. Free advertising. Give 'em a taste.
Heck, let me pay a small fee to VOD the HBO/Showtime premium tv shows, without having to subscribe to said premiums.
So far, VOD to me is a dud.
I could see Amazon doing with books what Netflix does with DVDs. It is essentially the same thing with the same issues.
Hopefully Amazon will offer a competitive price and that will hopefully lead to lower prices on Netflix...
If Amazon does a good job here I would probably switch over because I have noticed that everytime I start returning a lot of movies back to Netflix there is a mysterious slow down in delivery of new movies on their part. They blame it on the Post Office but there distro facility is right down the road and checking with the Post Office there really is no delay. It looks to me like Netflix either doesn't process returned movies quick enough or delays them so you get less movies per month if you happen to be watching/returning them too fast. Anyone else have that issue?
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
This is true, but its hard to find an older movie at blockbuster. My experience is that if an older movie is lost or damaged at blockbuster, they dont reorder it and I can't rent it again. The online renters have thousands more movies in stock, and also tv shows and things like that.
With online retailers, I have found netflix to have much faster turn around times than blockbuster online. Netflix also seems to have many more copies of movies and a better selection. Just my observations.
I got nothin'
A problem I see with that is postage, books are considerably larger and heavier == expensive.
Also, books get damaged far quicker than dvd's. I dont think it is a real option for them.
I use it.
There are no complaints.
fyi:
Turn arond time typically 3 days (in the postbox by 12pm -> email telling you they've got it & what you're getting next -> receipt).
Only one unreadable DVD out of ~ 20 so far. Using their online 'damage reported' method, they sent a replacement before I returned the bad one.
-- Mod me down. I am not a karma tart. ffs,gag
If the US service is as good as the UK service, this should do quite well. Neat little DVD holders, clever postage packaging and fast turn around and the price was significantly cheaper than renting from Blockbusters. My only complaint was that my girlfriend has taken it over. In the last month she has made me watch The Notebook, Million Dollar Baby and Piglet the Movie. Apparently, I'm not allowed to rent Shaolin Soccer because we can't both watch it?!?!?!
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
I think one thing Amazon will have going for them is their website. Assuming they leverage a lot of their existing code, their initial US launch should be miles ahead of Netflix. While Amazon is constantly adding new features that help me find interesting things in the long tail, I don't think Netflix has made an improvement to their website in the two years I've been a customer.
Don't get me wrong, I like Netflix, but the recommendations they make for me are almost always off target. On the other hand, Amazon is always presenting me with interesting recommendations on music and books.
That's just one feature that I expect they will execute better than Netflix. They also have a slew of fetaures Netflix doesn't offer. Some of the ones I've found useful include "the page you made", "customers who bought this also bought this", "customers who viewed this also viewed this".
Then's there's "Artist Essentials". Just getting into jazz but overwhelmed by the many choices for say, Ella Fitzgerald? Then check out her "Artist Essentials". It's just a static list, so how hard could it be to implement? But if you want an opinion from Netflix about the best movies of, say, Jim Jarmusch, well, you're just SOL.
All in all, I'd say Amazon's entry into this market will introduce some good competition, and we're all going to benefit.
Surely they already have the software for doing it. So why do they need to hire more programmers for it?
Meanwhile, the cable companies continue to deploy video on demand. And it looks like TiVo will soon offer content programming downloads via the web. Why would I want to rent DVDs?
I am really confused as to whether everybody is still overcharging. Considering everyone has an endless queue list that seem to be sending things out of order again and again. There is still a real supply problem.
I should probably not give away a secret this good, especially on slashdot, but I've been renting newly released DVD movies from my local library for $1.50. Same length of time from the video store (About 3 days) and significantly cheaper than any of the local area chain video stores. Documentaries and TV series are free to rent, and you can keep some of those up to 3 weeks. Sometimes there is a wait on the TV series, but overall it's worked beautifully for me.
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
Amazon bought IMDB a while back, and luckily, hasn't screwed it up. The IMDB is the best source for movie and TV info online. When Amazon bought it, the only obvious change was making the "buy it" link in the upper left corner always point to Amazon.
If they tie it in with the IMDB, that would be pretty handy. Search for "Virginia Madsen" and you see a list of all her movies, with boxes next to the ones available for rental. Tick the ones you want and they get added to your queue.
This is also a plus since you could search with IMDB for any movie, not just the ones they stock. Want a movie that isn't out on DVD yet? Add it to a wish list.
Amazon also has the setup with used DVDs ( and books ) to ofer deals if you want to buy the movies instead of, or after, renting them. I'd expect them to let you know how long your wait will be for a rental while offering a shorted length if you want to buy one now.
Amazon also didn't pump up the IPO by paying spammers like Netflix did. Netflix will always be tainted by that.
i wonder if its possible to do book rental and if amazon will ever do this?