Blockbuster on-line vs. netflix

[LCHIEN]

BB just upped the ante...

They were giving me 2 brick and mortar (B&M) store coupons plus the on-line mailed rentals (1 out at a time) for $9.95 per month. THe B&M coupons were worth basically $8 per month.

When you get a movie mailed to you, you could get a 3-4 day turnaround and get about 6-7 movies per month.

Now, they have a deal "Total Access", if you bring the mailed movie back to a B&M store instead of mailing it, they will scan it in and immediately ship the next movie the next day AND give you a free rental from the store that you have to return under the regular store rules. That gives you an extra movie AND cuts down the turnaround time by one day.

I suppose they're locked in a market share war with Netflix, and trying to take advantage of their retail presence, but it seems like a good deal for us consumers.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Can the additional in store movie upon return be a new release?

[LCHIEN]

Can the additional in store movie upon return be a new release?

yeah, any DVD!

[Jeffrey Schronce]

That deal has huge positive expected value! I am definately signing up. 3, 4 and 9 year olds are well sedated by the occasional movie.

Excellent deal. Thanks!

[LCHIEN]

I just found out the downside is that they are only giving me One coupon per month now, but, the added free rentals from the store for each return is a huge plus regardless, it also satisfies the need to browse the aisles once in a while for impulse rents and also seems to be a surefire way to get the latest stuff (I used my coupon and return this week for Lake House and MI:3 from the store and took them off my on-line wait list.)

[radhak]

I'd say BB needed to do something like this - their delivery times lags behind Netflix.

I switched from Netflix to BB, then switched back. BB's time-taken-to-deliver was not dependably predictably. Netflix is like clockwork - mail out on Monday morning, receive the next on Wed (and so on). YMMV, depending on geography, but i found this the case in Minneapolis, NJ and here in South Florida.

The huge advantage BB has over Netflix is their abundant inventory of video cassette collections that have not been converted to DVD, as Netflix does not deal in VCs. They need to somehow leverage that to make a difference.

[scorrpio]

I dunno about the VCR thing. Haven't watched a tape in months. I actually been capturing whatever tapes I have left that are unlikely to come out on DVD, and burning to DVDs myself. Our HDTV will no longer even digest most tapes.

Netflix IS very fast, and I believe if you have a good standing with them, you can indicate on their website that the returns are in the mail, and they will ship new selections immediately. Basically, put in a notice on Sunday, mail on Monday, get next selection on Tuesday.

Frankly, I think that eventually, cable companies are going to eat both BB and Netflix with competitively priced on-demand services. Subscribe, and you can get any movie you want cabled directly in. In HD. No waiting, no going to a B&M store.

[onedash]

blockbuster is always trying to get me to try it. I rent very few movies now a days. I buy way more than I rent. I can only get good quality copies if they are under 90 minutes and when they have all that extra feature junk they get kinda funny too.

[Doug Jones]

I can only get good quality copies if they are under 90 minutes and when they have all that extra feature junk they get kinda funny too.

hijack,,,,
This would also depend on what program your using to burn as well as what brand of media your using and how fast your burn speed is. Different copy programs have different compression rates. Then it also depends if your encoding or transcoding.

Sorry for the hijack,,, back to topic now,

I have been watching the BB deal they just started, but for me with a two day turn over not sure I need to change. I also think this will cause Net. to drop prices a bit in order to stay competitive.