Looks like for now, they only have a deal in place to delay renting Warner Brother’s releases but they expect other studios to sign similar deals. In exchange for the delay, Netflix will get the DVD’s at a cheaper price and the studio will allow more movies and TV shows to be streamed online through the service.
I don’t normally get new releases from Netflix until after a month or so, so no big deal to me, but this doesn’t seem like it’ll make many customers very happy.
I don’t get it. If I want to see a movie really badly, I’ll go while it’s still playing in theaters. If I can wait six months for it to come out on video, I can wait seven months.
It doesn’t matter that much to me either. I’ve got 400+ on my queque. There’s something there that I’ll be glad to watch when it hits my mailbox. 
I think it sucks balls and it may cost them my membership. I’m going to draft an email to the company with the phrase “sucks balls” in it.
If it means more streaming, I’m all for it.
The question is who is going to make out better from that deal, WB or Netflix? It’s pretty hard to quantify. In any case, doesn’t matter to me. I watch a movie pretty much every day and even at this rate I will never see the vast majority of all movies ever made in my lifetime.
Doesn’t bother me very much. If I didn’t mind waiting until the movie came out on DVD, then another 28 days won’t usually be an issue. It’s an acceptable trade-off for more streaming content.
This does confuse me a bit though. Netflix pays to purchase a copy of the film and then pays again for the right to rent the movie to its customers? The movie studios have quite the racket going.
I’m not about to cancel my membership or anything, but I do agree with unwashed brain that “sucks balls” are les mots justes.
I’m really hard pressed to see where the advantage for the studios lies. Who the hell is going to buy the DVDs instead because of this delay?
Disclaimer: I’m not a huge movie-watcher. I don’t have Netflix or any premium movie channels (well, we have the old-movie set on Cox, E-something maybe?), rent only occasionally and rarely go to the theatre.
That said, I have no problem with this at all. In fact, I’m all for it.
I’m considering getting Netflix just for the streamed content. I’d much rather have on-demand than muck around with mailed discs (which is why I haven’t had a subscrip before). I’d be a lot more likely to watch when it’s at my whim.
Waiting an extra month? Eh, no problem.
My initial reaction was to be disappointed but if it really means more content available for streaming and less cost to Netflix then that is a good thing for me. I could definitely do with more streaming options and since Netflix represents good value for me I support their well being and profitability.
My only concern would be if this is part of a bigger trend to shut Netflix out to preserve their DVD purchasing business. I hope market forces make it impossible for them to do that successfully. I would think so - it just doesn’t make sense anymore to purchase DVDs.
No, where did you get that from? The rentable copy is much more expensive than a regular consumer copy, because it comes with the rights to rent it.
The content they can stream is a separate issue. They have to have a deal which allows them to stream it, and I am not sure what the typical fee structure for that looks like compared against a physical, rentable disc.
It really won’t bother me too much. I really only care about new releases during the two times of the year when the summer blockbusters come out on DVD and the holiday movies are released. I’ve never been the type to rent a new release just because it is new.
I like the streaming feature, but I only use it from time to time. I usually use it if I’m traveling or want to watch something different from the Netflix DVDs I have out.
I checked out the streaming quality and it - dare I say - sucks balls. It looks like VHS could give it a run for the money. I don’t want to watch crappy quality video on my hi-def big screen for which I paid a lot of moolah. I don’t want to listen to crappy audio through my surround system either.
Stream me blu-ray quality content and then I’ll quit bitching when I can’t get the blu-rays the day they’re released in the stores. It’s not even close to a fair trade-off at this point.
I thought that was no longer the case, because studios started releasing rental and retail DVDs at the same time, unlike the longstanding practice for tapes, where the very expensive rentals were released months ahead of the retail copies.
So we’re going to have to wait 28 days and then another 30+ days at “very long wait” to get a new release. Great. One time a new release came out on HBO before I got it in the mail and now they want me to wait longer?
Brilliant.
This is great if it means we get more streaming content. I currently split an account with my parents. They get the discs sent to them so they can watch a lot of the old 1950s western shows and such, and I watch all the streaming content. Streaming is the way things will be primarily delivered in only a few years, and I’m glad to see them moving in that direction.
Well, no. They want you to buy it. Netflix can let 30 people see a movie with one DVD[sup]*[/sup]. The studios would prefer that be 30 DVDs. But they can’t deny the rental business, so they’re trying other tactics.
*Numbers pulled from a very dark place.
If nobody had told me I was waiting an extra 28 days, it would have made exactly no difference in my life.
More streaming content, on the other hand, is a very nice bonus, and will make me :D.
Doesn’t bother me in the least. I have 200 discs in my queue already, so it’s not like I’m going to die if I have to wait another 28 days to watch some movies that I didn’t see in the theater.