Netflix subscribers will have to wait 28 days to rent Warner Bros.’ latest DVDs and blu-rays, according to the Associated Press.
Or because someone thinks people who couldn’t be bothered to haul ass out to the multiplex to catch a flick won’t be perfectly content to wait a month for the DVD on Netflix.
This has been your WTF Thought for the Day.
(h/t to Bonnie via email)
And other studios should be quick to follow if this works, for this would give them more of what they want: opportunity to sell discs instead of renting discs. More money to the studios when you buy a disc. Less money when you rent a disc.
So be smart and be patient with Warner flicks. Don’t buy them, rent them from Netflix a month later. Then this latest artificial barrier to consumers will fail.
May lead to more “piracy” if you ask me… Discs should be available to buy at the multiplex the day you see the film in the cinema.
Wakko Warner would never be this stupid.
Just yesterday I was tempted to buy a DVD, but I resisted, and every time I read news like this, my resistance grows more powerful than any studio executive can imagine.
I don’t even care which studio the DVDs are from anymore. The differences between them are minor compared to their similarities. They have all declared war on their own customers, and made life harder for the people who actually produce the art, and yet still completely failed to make any serious dents in the piracy they claim is their target.
In truth they are enemies of freedom.
For the handful of studio movies I see every year, I have no problem waiting a little longer to see them on Netflix. If I wanted to see a new release that bad, I would have seen it in the theatre.
I saw a poll on this last night, and 42% of the respondents said they were going to cancel their Netflix membership because of this, and 8% were suckers who said they would have to buy more DVDs now. Delay gratification? How Un-American!
The rest said they would wait or didn’t care, because they mostly use Netflix to watch Seinfeld reruns. A sample comment:
“NETFLIX is the next best thing to sliced bread, I love the convenience and the browsing features online. Why does everything have to be immediate these days? You will see the same movie today or in 30 days, the program does not change with age. Keep up the good work Netflix.”
I agree completely (and have said as much before). The six-months-later DVD release should be the one with all the extras. But the only way to effectively combat piracy is to release the film in all legitimate formats (also: on-demand, iTunes, etc) at the same time.
That seems to be, by default, the standard way of doing business for big American corporations these days. In fact, it’s downright refreshing and surprising to find a big company these days that treats its customers like they’re important and vital, not like they’re a troublesome afterthought.
I think you’re all missing the point. Netflix is being crazy like a fox. They are making this concession to all the DVD manufacturers because they want greater rights to stream the movies. They aren’t called Mailflix, they’re called Netflix, and this move is just one more nail in the coffin of plastic film delivery. Everyone says that the DVD is going away, and Netflix is acting on it.
I have 486 discs in my queue right now. Warner Brothers is smoking something good to think that a month is going to matter to me.