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Netflix Will Delay Renting New WB Releases

Posted by kdawson on from the times-they-are-a-changin' dept.

DesertBlade tips the news that Netflix will delay renting new releases from Warner Brothers for 28 days, and adds "Luckily I am so far behind in my movie watching that I will probably never catch up anyway." "It's part of a strategy by several studios to create staggered releases of DVDs so that the most profitable transactions are available first and cheaper rental options take effect further down the road. The move could be copied by other studios, forcing consumers to wait nearly a month if they want to rent popular movies from Netflix. ... The studio is hoping that the four-week window will push consumers interested in watching movies at home to buy the DVDs or pay a premium to rent them from stores like Blockbuster or from Internet and cable video-on-demand services. Warner Bros. already imposes a 28-day window on $1-a-night kiosk firm Redbox."

8 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. What a great idea! by Pojut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Artifically deny your customer the ability to buy your product. They'll love you for it!

    Feh.

    --
    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:What a great idea! by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "The studio is hoping that the four-week window will push consumers interested in watching movies at home to... pirate the movie instead."

    2. Re:What a great idea! by Moryath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah. They used to wait over a year before you could even get the VHS... and we hated the hell out of that.

      Artificial scarcity doesn't work. Period. If only they could learn this.

    3. Re:What a great idea! by Anonymusing · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the plus side: "Netflix will use the savings to expand its stock of the studio's DVDs and triple the number of Warner catalog titles it provides through its online streaming option."

      In other words, you won't have to wait for the DVD so much -- you'll be able to watch it on your computer. Certainly, the newest releases won't be available that way, but still... anything that expands the (legal) streaming movies options is a good thing.

      --
      Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right
    4. Re:What a great idea! by ByTor-2112 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's because there are more vaginas involved in the application of diamond products than pirated movies.

  2. I'll just wait longer... by SOOPRcow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I really want the movie on dvd I'm gonna buy it anyway. If I was just gonna rent it when it comes out on dvd what makes you think I'll want to buy it instead of waiting 28 extra days? Or at worse one could always pirate it since I'm sure there will be dvd rips on the net. Anyway, this isn't all bad... more streaming stuff :)

    1. Re:I'll just wait longer... by bit9 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mod parent up.

      I don't know anybody (myself included) who actually keeps track of DVD release dates, much less counts down in anticipation of a DVD being released. Pretty much every movie that I rent from Netflix is something that I've decided I don't mind waiting for, and apart from the 2-3 movies down at the bottom of my Netflix queue that say "Releases mm/dd/yyyy", I literally never have any idea when a given movie is/was/will be released on DVD.

      Okay, so maybe not everybody is like me in this respect. Maybe there are hordes of people who will now be thinking to themselves "Damn! I just can't wait another month! I guess I'll have to buy that DVD after all." But I just don't see it happening that way. I don't know anybody who thinks that way. I do know a couple DVD junkies who seem to think they just have to own every movie ever made on DVD, but this isn't going to change their habits anyway.

  3. Re:28 days later by DaveGod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is anyone really that hell-bent on getting a movie that they'd rather pirate it than wait 28 days?

    That's movie-studio thinking. And yeah, on the face of it, it does make sense - break the law, commit a morally wrong act for the sake of 28 days?

    But that forgets what movies have become. Torrents being free is only half of it - the other half is service. Piracy is fiercely competitive on service: they are quire remarkable in getting whatever you want, however you want, as quickly as they possibly can. The studios have taken some steps towards competing: cinema releases are increasingly worldwide and DVD releases have a shorter delay. But they're not really close - it's like the big airlines trying to do the low-cost airline thing, they just don't have the mentality for it.

    It's why some people pirate despite having their cinema card, a Netflix sub and shelves of store-bought movies. It's not that they aren't prepared to pay, it's just piracy is the better service. Sure, plenty of pirates are doing it just because it's free, but there's a big chunk of people with a range of different reasons. Each step the studios take towards competing with piracy is a chunk of people for whom paying becomes their better choice. Each step away from competing with piracy, like delaying Netflix for 28 days, a bunch of people turn on the torrents. Many will actually be annoyed about not being able to get what they want by paying for it.

    I'm not trying to defend pirates, I've never illegally downloaded a movie in my life (though I'll not pretend to having never watched any). But there's what's right and there's what is. Quite basic market forces.