Today is sad day for Netflix customers. The online video rental supplier has just announced an agreement with Warner Bros. that will forever alter your online rental experience. Now should you wish to rent a Warner Bros. flick you’ll have to wait out a 28-day holding period after the film’s initial DVD release date.
Of course the partnership rooted in money-making greed — Warner Bros. wants you to buy the DVD instead of rent it —was to be expected. But the new deal is a first of its kind, and we could soon see several other studios follow in Warner Bros. footsteps.
Both companies would like you to know that the deal also guarantees that Warner Bros. will add more direct-to-video and streaming titles to the Netflix collection.
28 Days Later: Say Goodbye to the Netflix New Release Rental
Jan 7, ’10
10:22 AM
Comments
14 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Because people can’t show some restraint for 4 more weeks? It’s not like movies are rushed out of the theaters to dvd/bluray anyway. And for those who don’t want to wait, there’s always the local rental store. Or the internet. I highly doubt that holding out on Netflix will really drive up dvd sales.
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I agree. I can wait if need be. I prefer streaming to a dvd through the mail anyway.
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I’m good Warner Bros. Ill wait until it comes out on Netflix. Who buys DVD’s anyways?! If there is an awesome box set of lord of the rings movies with extended features and documentaries ill buy it….but other than that….. no.
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This is just asking people to pirate more, and if people find piracy more convenient this could end up backfiring on Netflix as well. Bad move all around, though I doubt most netflix customers will care that much.
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I have over 200 movies in my netflix queue. I somehow doubt that an extra month for a couple of them is going to effect me very much
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My concept of when a new release comes out is whenever Netflix tells me it’s new, so the delay will not really affect me. Not mentioned in this blurb, the money that Netflix will be saving as a part of this deal will be used towards providing more copies of the new releases, leading to less wait time.
I think it’s funny all of the people saying they’re leaving Netflix because of this one little thing. Please do…
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” Now should you wish to rent a Warner Bros. flick you’ll have to wait out a 28-day holding period after the film’s initial DVD release date.”
So I guess we have to wait until the film has its first period…
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AHahahaha
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All this does is guarantee that I won’t be buying a WB disc any time soon. More Netflix streaming is a boon to customers, and if there’s something I really want to see, well, there’s a certain bay for nautical criminals that doesn’t have a 28 day lockout period.
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I think it’s a dumb move, built on Warner’s false belief that it will increase DVD sales rather than just increase piracy, but if there’s a decent trade-off in streaming titles to Netflix, I have no problem with this deal. I can very easily wait the 28 days.
I’ll wait and see how well Netflix makes out on new streaming titles because of it, but it’s far from “a sad day for Netflix customers.”
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WB are shooting themselves in the foot. I don’t have time to watch the movies already in my queue now – it’ll be at least a month before I get to those, let alone whatever new ones I add. This move is *not* motivating me to buy movies.
Good luck with it, WB…
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Look at the bright side. Netflix is likely making more money from WB, which will allow them to serve customers better. And judging by the above comments, most people don’t care about the extra 28 days anyway. I don’t have Netflix, but it sounds win-win to me. I use the Blockbuster Express kiosks, and probably rent 1 movie a month. The impatient can always go that route anyway.
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I am with tiki god, 200+ in the queue…This is just warner bros. trying to hold on to the past…they should call up their friends the newspapers for a comforting word.
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As long as this results in more Watch Instantly Streaming videos, it’s fine with me.
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