In a piece of news we will surely be discussing on our next podcast, (evening of Jan. 19) Netflix has agreed (read: folded) to Warner Bros. to not ship WB DVDs and Blu-Rays for the first four weeks they are on sale. What this means is that when Where the Wild Things Are, The Book of Eli, Clash of the Titans, Ninja Assassin and Sherlock Holmes come out on DVD and Blu-Ray later this year, Netflix users will have to wait 28 days before they are allowed to rent the discs. In return WB is allowing more of its (older) titles to go up on Netflix streaming (including the Matrix series and Caddyshack).
Click here to read more details about the situation, one that is surely going to see some backlash from Netflix users…or will it? What do you think?
By Sci-Guy-John
January 6th, 2010 - 11:21 pm
I’m wondering how much money Blockbuster and Hollywood Video had to give WB for this “deal.” I suppose this will help sales a little… but it seems like it will increase the number of people who choose to watch pirated copies via the web, too.
January 7th, 2010 - 10:15 am
This deal is predicated on Netflix getting more streaming content, AND special pricing on the WB DVDs they purchase. So netflix is just a “bad” in this situation as WB – I wouldn’t say they “caved” or “folded” to WB – They negotiated the deal.
Would I prefer to get all the discs from netflix they day they ship? sure I would. Even more, I would like to get them streamed the day they ship. No wait, I want to get them streamed for free before they even come out in the theaters.
But what consumers want is only part of the equation. All of these content producers / distributors need to make money, or the content goes away. This is the vanguard of the new order…
I suspect that in the future we will see this sort of tiered release schedule become even more fragmented. Itunes already has a similar delay, and I suspect all video rental outfits will soon have the same, from all studios.
At the end of the day, this isn’t a big deal for me, if I REALLY want to see something I see it in the theaters.
The only real concern for me is a DVD only release like Caprica – that would then require a purchase to see in a timely fashion, but again, it is what we will be dealing with for the foreseeable future.