No, I’m not a reader, but my logic for not buying books would be the same if I were.
Just so you know, Netflix has already anticipated this and started the move to streaming this month. See this thread: Netflix users, we are getting a new free feature phased in.
I do not have a convenient Blockbusters, so Netflix is ideal and far cheaper than on-demand and of course it has a huge selection. For $18 per month we probably average about 20-25 movies per month. It is a good deal for us.
We do not bother with any premium cable channels because of Netflix. Except when Soprano’s are running or I get a great temporary deal.
Jim
I really don’t foresee streaming video having too much of an impact on DVD rentals. I’ve tried watching movies and tv shows on my computer. It isn’t fun. My monitor is much smaller than my tv screen, and my video card tends to overheat and make an annoying beeping sound after maybe a half-hour. I really need to get a tv tuner card and hook my computer up to my tv. I might do this when I build a new computer in the spring, but that’s more effort than most people will be willing to put into their movie-watching experience.
On-demand video, however, is going to cause problems for DVD rental companies. As ZipperJJ pointed out, Blockbuster is increasingly becoming a videogame-rental store. I think Netflix-'s future will depend on them having a wide selection, so people can rent all kinds of obscure movies and tv shows that their cable companies don’t offer.
Personally, I hope Blockbuster goes “buster” sooner than later.
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When they started, they gobbled up every mom and pop video store, including some really great shops that specialized in foreign films and independent films you couldn’t normally find, and certainly were never found on Blockbuster shelves. Those smaller stores couldn’t compete and closed up.
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Blockbuster customer service was rude, staffed by idiots who had never heard of any classic films or classic directors, etc. My final straw was being accused of turning in a film late (which I never did, ever) and told to pay the fine or never rent from them again…no discussion and the bitch manager flat out told me I was a liar, despite the fact that I had never once had a late fee in my over 3 year membership with them.
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Blockbuster took it upon themselves to be the guardians of morality, forcing films to come out in an edited version to appease the Moral Police.
So pardon me if I don’t shed a tear if and when they finally close their doors for good.
So how is a shop that specializes in films never found at Blockbuster run out of business by Blockbuster?
I never noticed the staff being ruder than any other retail place and I never really noticed the censorship either, though I am aware it happened. Did their Canadian chain carry the scrubbed clean ones?
Anyway, an actual store is preferable to me. I’m not some movie-aholic so having a constant stream of movies to watch and return would be a waste. I like to just go in when I feel like it and see what’s there, depending on my mood.
I used to go to Blockbuster, until I moved and discovered a small independent video store called Top 10 just a few blocks from my house. Basically, everything about this store is better than Blockbuster:
[ul]
[li]Despite being 1/3 the size of Blockbuster, it seems to have three times the selection (there are no video games there, so more space.) It has all the obscure and older movies that Blockbuster doesn’t (I’m mostly a fan of 90s movies.) Often they’re on VHS, but that doesn’t bother me as much as it does some people.[/li][li]They have seperate sections for horror, sci-fi, etc - Don’t know about the other ones, but our local Blockbuster lumps the sci-fi and horror in with the Action section.[/li]
[li]The lighting in the store is warmer and more comfortable, unlike the harsh white fluorescents at Blockbuster. [/li]
[li]It’s the same guy working there every time (the owner,) and since I go in there all the time, after a few months he knows me on a first name basis. I never get charged late fees (he says,“You’re a regular, so don’t worry about it,”) even if I haven’t returned the late movie yet![/li]
[li]They have a room of just porn, which may be sleazy, but demonstrates that they’re not pandering to the “family” market. And even if you don’t care for porn, it’s still one more thing they have that Blockbuster doesn’t.[/li]
[li]Blockbuster has annoying previews blasting all the time, whereas Top 10 will have one of the owner’s favorite movies playing quietly on a small TV. [/li][li]There’s a huge selection of snacks, at reasonable prices. They even have beef jerky and homemade candies from a local farm.[/li][li]They sell phone cards for people to call anywhere in the world (we have a large international population for a small town.) This may not matter to most people but it’s still one more thing that they have.[/li][/ul]
With a store like this, I have absolutely no reason to go to Blockbuster, or as MAD Magazine might say, BLECCHHH-buster.
I don’t know how long Blockbuster can survive, but right now, they offer me or my family nothing. Netflix has a better selection of the anime titles my wife and daughter love. I mostly watch old TV series and movies. Between my DVR and Netflix, I’m never at a point where I have ‘nothing’ to watch. If anything, I can’t keep up - but I don’t spend a lot of time in front of the TV. Plus, if I want to watch a new release, I can choose OnDemand cable, but that’s rare. If I really want to see it, I will go to the movie. If I could wait then, I can wait until it gets to the top of my Netflix queue.
A store that caters to a niche of independent and foreign films doesn’t only carry those films. There’s no ROI in that business model alone - the money is in renting one title over and over again. So while Mom and Pop may have catered to the niche, they make their money doing the same thing Blockbuster does, only Blockbuster can handle more volume, more advertising, more copies of a single title, etc.
Good points, I’m glad you brought up digital storage of music, also. Good call. I totally agree with your take on technology changing behavior, also.
Am I the only person in the world that gets movies from the library?
I can go most nights of the week until 9:00, look through a pretty good selection of movies, and pick one up. For free. I can also reserve a copy of almost any movie that I want to see (so far, I’ve been unable to find only one movie in the library system, and now I can’t even remember the name of it), and it comes to my branch and waits for me to pick it up. At the drive through window! For free! It’s not quite as good as getting it in the mail, but it’s pretty good. It requires some advance planning, and some patience, and we incur maybe $1.00 in late fees a month on average.
If it were up to me, Blockbuster would have gone bust years ago.
On-Demand needs to lower prices to knock out Blockbuster or Netflix. On-Demand cost too much.
As far as streaming, you are thinking in the now. By 2012, many if not most computers will come with everything required to be part of the media center. There might even be consoles that can do the job. I could see the next X-Box or PS4 having the required abilities.
StuffLikeThatThere: The library is far out of my way and Netflix and On-Demand come to me. It is a great option if it is convenient, but not so great if it is not.
Jim
Blockbuster seems to have brought this on themselves.
heres an interesting link
According to this article, when movies were released on vhs, blockbuster got the movies several months before they went on sale. (I think the vhs versions were really expensive too.) In return, the studios got a cut of the rentals. When dvd’s emerged, Blockbuster was offered the exact same deal, but they got greedy and said no. In response, the studios starting selling the dvd’s much cheaper, and you could buy them as soon as you could rent them. With no ‘rent only’ time window, and low prices at walmart and such, the incentive to buy rather than rent increased dramatically.
let me try the link again.http://www.slate.com/id/2133995/?nav=fo
I agree, and I’ve already got a setup with my computer hooked up to a projector. For streaming internet video to make a big impact on DVD rentals, it’ll either have to wait until people start hooking computers up to their TVs en masse, which is taking a lot longer than Microsoft would like, or it’ll have to be so much better than DVDs that people hook their computers up to their TVs because they can get movies and TV that way.
So far, the quality is dubious, the studios are not really on board, it costs as much or more than renting a movie, and the overal internet backbone is not up to it. If 100 million households started trying to download their movie rentals tomorrow, the internet would grind to a standstill. The bandwidth simply isn’t there.
I’m not saying it won’t happen; I just don’t think it’ll be a major player in the next 5 years.
I agree with Wee Bairn that I no longer see the appeal of buying movies over renting, and I think that more people are going to come around to this in time. Books too The only books and movies that I buy any more are either so obscure that Netflix and my local library don’t have them, or so popular that I want to read/watch them immediately, and won’t wait for Netflix’s “Long Wait” or my library’s request system to supply them. I used to be proud of my collection of movies and books; now it’s just another few hundred pounds of stuff I have to haul with me every time I move. I’m currently going through my library and weeding out everything I haven’t watched or read in the last two years. Odds are, I’m not going to watch or read it in the next two, either.
Hmmm, apparently Redbox and Hollywood Video rental machines aren’t as widespread around the country as they are here.
They look like this and we have them in every McDonalds and grocery store (Festival/Cub) around me.
$1 a night, $1 a night overdue fee, return them to any machine.
I guess my question should be, If these machines were in your McDonalds and grocery stores would you still go to Blockbuster?
What your article fails to state is that DVDs available prior to sell-through would be priced the same as VHS tapes - roughly $80 - 120 per copy. For tapes this is a cost that can usually be recovered within a few weeks of rentals. For DVDs the cost is a little harder to recover, since a great deal of discs are lost to irreparable damage. Having discs available at lower prices is a good deal Blockbuster and a much better deal for customers, since they can order more copies at a lower prices to rent out, without having to share profits with the studios. Also, if you lose that brand new copy of this weeks’ new release you rented on DVD you’re only paying back Blockbuster ~$20 to replace it instead of the $80 it cost the store under a profit-sharing arrangement.
We have them. I’ve never used them.
First of all, I go to a local place, like argent Towers described.
But, some of us still enjoy perusing the video store, waiting for something to just jump off the shelf saying, “i’m the perfect movie for you to watch tonight.”
Sure, most of the time I’m just working through the new arrivals, but now and then you think, “I’m in the mood for some horror. What haven’t I seen?” or “maybe a woody allen or scorcese movie would be good tonight”.
It’s at least frequent enough that I don’t ever want to see my local place gone. the only thing I could see replacing it is a PPV service with a massive library of titles. When that happens (and I have Dish), that’s the end of the brick & mortar video store.
Fair enough. That’s why on-demand wouldn’t work for me. We don’t have cable, satellite, or even an antenna. On-demand under those circumstances certainly isn’t convenient. 
Probably. Blockbuster is closer to me than either the grocery store or a mcdonalds.
Thank you for the link to the article and Welcome to the dope.
After reading it, I feel the need to insert a Ha-HA against Blockbuster on this one. 
Jim