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News & ArtsWednesday, January 6, 2010
Retail Score One for Video Stores
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 3:43 PM
For some reason, Netflix has agreed to hold all rentals of Warner Brothers DVDs for a month after the release date. Says Engadget:
We'd been hearing that Warner Brothers would be pushing for month-long rental delays for mail-order services in order to boost sales, and it looks like Netflix has been pushed into submission: under an agreement announced today, Warner Brother DVDs and Blu-rays won't be available to Netflix subscribers for 28 days after they're released for sale. What's worse, Netflix says it expects to reach similar deals with the other major studios as time goes on.
Netflix just handed independent video stores an amazing gift; a month's head-start on movies. If you want to see anything on DVD while people are still talking about it, you'll have to go to Scarecrow, Broadway Market Video, On 15th, or any other local video store.
2
I imagine this is part of a larger deal to give Time Warner and Comcast a month to have movies exclusively on demand. I'd guess it's probably the death knell, rather than the godsend.
4
The AP story gives better detail on the trade-off -- Netflix wants access to the Warners library for on-demand (Computer, Xbox, eventually PS3). They are driving heavily into that area.
5
@3: Agreed.
I mean thats all well and good for people living in the city where you have options... How about those of us who's only video store in town is a Safeway with like 30 movies tops? I mean, I'm not going to die if I have to wait a month to see stuff but its still BS.
I mean thats all well and good for people living in the city where you have options... How about those of us who's only video store in town is a Safeway with like 30 movies tops? I mean, I'm not going to die if I have to wait a month to see stuff but its still BS.
9
@4 PS3 Streaming already available.
If video stores didn't have that stupid "2 nights for new releases" thing, I'd actually care...
It was OK when I was a teenager, and had fewer things better to do.
If video stores didn't have that stupid "2 nights for new releases" thing, I'd actually care...
It was OK when I was a teenager, and had fewer things better to do.
10
@5 you answered your own complaint "you aren't going to die" .....lets just think of it this way.....lets put that month upfront and say.....oh, I'm not going to watch any releases for all of Feb 2010. Once the delay sets in it really won't matter that you aren't getting Marvel Comic's latest crap film a that month because Netflix just mailed your limited edition copy of the Matrix VII with 5 extra hours of footage which was actually released the prior month.
11
Good call, @Durang Durang. Netflix likes to de-emphasize release dates, anyway, and so this isn't as big a deal as it looks at first.
15
I guess I don't understand what all the fuss is about. You've already waited six to nine months to see that movie on DVD anyway, right? What's another month?
17
@13 so so so sick of seattlites being called passive aggressive, seriously, do you want to involve punches in such a retarded debate?...bring it! ...where do you live? I can meet you....whatever is easy. just let me know you little twat.
18
Well, there's only a five-day waiting period on handguns, so you could always just wait five days and then go rob the video stores.
19
This is probably illegal in some kind of technical "restraint of trade" sense, but I like it anyhow, and I suspect that Scarecrow does too.
21
I love it when sniveling little shits get uppity. Be careful sirkowski - he'll strangle you with his skinny jeans!
22
Sirkowski, you're off-base.
Don't get me wrong: I hate passive aggression. It's worse in the Midwest - those little bombs that they drop and then deny that they dropped them when you call them on it. "Oh, I didn't meant it that way!" Seattle is rotten with it, too. (Sorry Andy, but it's true.)
Note, however, that the very nature that defines passive aggression is its deniability. They want to criticize you indirectly, because they are pussies. And they want an out if you confront them.
I see none of that in Andy Squirrel's posts. That's pure, undeniable aggression. And I have no problem with that.
Don't get me wrong: I hate passive aggression. It's worse in the Midwest - those little bombs that they drop and then deny that they dropped them when you call them on it. "Oh, I didn't meant it that way!" Seattle is rotten with it, too. (Sorry Andy, but it's true.)
Note, however, that the very nature that defines passive aggression is its deniability. They want to criticize you indirectly, because they are pussies. And they want an out if you confront them.
I see none of that in Andy Squirrel's posts. That's pure, undeniable aggression. And I have no problem with that.
23
Does Scarecrow really butter it's bread with NEW RELEASES? I'm sure that counts as a fraction of their income, but isn't their claim to fame the massive back catalog of obscure films?
Here's what this means: Netflix customers will get play-it-now access to all WB's back catalog (this should be scary to Scarecrow because it's probably thousands of old titles that will now be available immediately online). New released WB films will be embargoed on netflix for 1 month before they become available to customers.
If anyone happens to want to watch one of those embargoed movie in the 28 days they'll either download it illegally (most probable) or forget about it, or *maybe* go rent it.
Does anyone even have a rental store membership? I haven't had one for years. I'd rather just wait, or maybe choose from any of the thousands of other videos netflix have on demand.
Basically this is a minor inconvenience for a very small set of users and a huge boost to netflix's service for everyone and a terrifying prospect for old video stores which make money renting old movies that aren't (YET) available on netfilx.
Here's what this means: Netflix customers will get play-it-now access to all WB's back catalog (this should be scary to Scarecrow because it's probably thousands of old titles that will now be available immediately online). New released WB films will be embargoed on netflix for 1 month before they become available to customers.
If anyone happens to want to watch one of those embargoed movie in the 28 days they'll either download it illegally (most probable) or forget about it, or *maybe* go rent it.
Does anyone even have a rental store membership? I haven't had one for years. I'd rather just wait, or maybe choose from any of the thousands of other videos netflix have on demand.
Basically this is a minor inconvenience for a very small set of users and a huge boost to netflix's service for everyone and a terrifying prospect for old video stores which make money renting old movies that aren't (YET) available on netfilx.
24
@23- I don't think Scarecrow memberships expire, so I'm still a member there. I haven't been there in over a year though. I use the library to get my movies.
25
Does anyone actually care when these movies come out? If I care so much that four weeks would matter, I care enough that I already saw it in the theatre. This is just strange corporate maneuvering to attempt to hold onto a rapidly shrinking domain.
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