Blockbuster keeps making the point that it gets new movies 28 days before they’re available from Netflix or Red Box. Why does this delay exist? Did Blockbuster sign some exclusivity contract with the studios?
It was a deal to get the DVDs cheaper for Netflix and Redbox. It’s a trade off, they wanted to pay less so they agreed to the delay.
Specifically, it’s to make purchasing the preferred way to obtain the movie right when it comes out. The logic is that the “big fans” will buy instead of waiting another month. The news reports said that Netflix, in particular, agreed to this specifically to get streaming rights to more movies, not to save money on the ones they bought.
They are also stripping some Netflix rental discs of Special Features to encourage the “big fans” to purchase rather than rent the movies.
According to Gizmodo, Blockbuster is now accepting the same 28 Day terms as Netflix & Redbox.
From previous articles I’ve read, the studios fgure that the bulk of DVD sales occur in the first month after release, after which they fall way down.
Edit: Reading the parent article, the 28 day thing applies to Blockbuster’s kiosks. There’s also some interesting stuff about how Blockbuster is kind of getting screwed from all sides in the deal because they’re not big enough these days to negotiate better terms.
And this *seems **to be depriving *some of much needed, even necessary, subtitles and CC unless we purchase the disk.
All crippling does is encourage piracy. Just don’t include the special features disk, but leave the basic features.
One of the reasons I just switched my Netflix plan to “streaming only” is because Amazon Unbox often gets new movies before Netflix does: for example, I rented Inception from Amazon a week or two ago and it won’t come to Netflix until 1/4.
Subtitles and closed captioning are usually available under “Setup,” which I’ve never seen as part of the special features.
Sometimes the extras are separate, but most of the movies I rent consist of just one disc. I fail to see how disabling the special features will encourage piracy, but maybe I’m underestimating how much the general public cares about them.