Netflix Beats Wal-Mart
Here is something for the good news department - I think. On-line DVD rental pioneer Netflix has successfully withstood the attempt by Wal-Mart to undercut Netflix on price, purloin its customers and drive it out of business. The two reached a deal in which Wal-Mart drops its rental business and promotes Netflix on the Wal-Mart web site, while Netflix in turn reminds its subscribers they can buy DVD movies from Wal-Mart.
I don't know anything about Netflix as an employer, but I do like the fact it was an innovative startup company that provided a new and useful service at a reasonable price, apparently without exploiting anyone. The reason my praise of the deal is qualified with the "I think" is because Netflix ends up promoting Wal-Mart DVD sales. My ex-lawyer instincts make me hope the lawyers for Netflix left lots of wiggle room in the deal for Netflix to downplay the Wal-Mart sale promotion and to reduce its impact by including other sale sources, possibly even sales by Netflix itself. Wal-Mart is shrewd though, and may have included some provision restricting Netflix DVD sale options. I would not be surprised at all if this mutual embedding arrangement eventually goes sour and ends up in court. But anybody who can withstand a challenge from Wal-Mart deserves praise and support. If you have not already done so, you might consider subscribing to Netflix.
The third player in the rental game, Blockbuster, came late to online rentals and has not attracted a significant number of customers. At least one analyst has suggested Blockbuster partner with Amazon.
I don't know anything about Netflix as an employer, but I do like the fact it was an innovative startup company that provided a new and useful service at a reasonable price, apparently without exploiting anyone. The reason my praise of the deal is qualified with the "I think" is because Netflix ends up promoting Wal-Mart DVD sales. My ex-lawyer instincts make me hope the lawyers for Netflix left lots of wiggle room in the deal for Netflix to downplay the Wal-Mart sale promotion and to reduce its impact by including other sale sources, possibly even sales by Netflix itself. Wal-Mart is shrewd though, and may have included some provision restricting Netflix DVD sale options. I would not be surprised at all if this mutual embedding arrangement eventually goes sour and ends up in court. But anybody who can withstand a challenge from Wal-Mart deserves praise and support. If you have not already done so, you might consider subscribing to Netflix.
The third player in the rental game, Blockbuster, came late to online rentals and has not attracted a significant number of customers. At least one analyst has suggested Blockbuster partner with Amazon.
posted by Tom Blake | 10:32 AM
3 Comments:
My brother Bryan (in California) subscribes to NetFlix and he loves it! I have checked out their packages and they seem reasonable. I don't know of anyone in the Seattle area who subscribes though.
I suppose if you are a movie rental regular, NetFlix is a great service to have. Unfortunately, I'm lucky if I rent one movie a year.
Bryan has nothing but good things about NetFlix. I believe he watches about 5 to 7 movies a month. He gets his next DVD in the US mail within a day or two of returning one.
I would be interested to know if anyone else subscribes to NetFlix and what they think as well.
~Rake
I don't like to watch movies by myself and Susan doesn't have a lot of spare time, so like you Reiko, we rarely rent movies. With Anthony and Pat staying with us now, there is more company for viewing movies, but they have already seen most of what I would like to see, because theater prices in Thailand were so inexpensive.
Anna's friend Seth is a strong Netflix advocate and has been a member for a fairly long time. If I joined, I would be interested in getting some of the old classics and seeing some of the better foreign films of the last several years.
From a purely film-oriented standpoint, I'm sure glad Netflix hung on. If Walmart had succeeded in putting them out of business, I find it hard to believe that many of the more interesting (e.g. foreign) titles would still be available for rental by mail. With their only serious competitor bulldozed, why should Walmart spend money catering to a more specialized market? But, who knows, maybe Blockbuster (a company I'm not crazy about) would have filled the void...In any case, it's nice to see a small, innovative company survive through ingenuity, continuing to provide the service it pioneered, rather than being shunted aside by a lumbering, merciless giant that triumphs by...but I was going to speak from a film-oriented standpoint.
Yeah, I signed up with Netflix when they were just starting out. Once it caught on they had some problems with wait times for a while, but they've solved that problem now. I've received their movies in four states without any real problems. If you watch a fair number of movies, it's definitely a good deal. (In fact, my sole complaint is that I wish they'd clean the discs more often...)
Seth in VT
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