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It started with a company in California named Netflix. The idea was to offer DVD rentals by mail with no late fees. They eventually went public and raised money for more distribution centers. This would allow most customers to receive their movies in one or two days. They attracted the attention of two companies called Blockbuster and Wal-Mart. Let the competition begin! Netflix has a four year head start which helps them control the majority of the online DVD rental market share. The company struggled with adding customers until they decided on the strategy of $20 a month for 3 DVD rentals at any given time and absolutely no late fees! This plus the easy and usable online rental system allows Netflix to boast a million plus users. The idea is pretty simple. You get online and create a rental list of your top movie choices. You rank movies so Netflix knows which titles to send first. They send out 3 movies at a time in a nifty rental slip with a return slip included. You never pay any shipping charges. Oh yeah, if your paranoid about getting charged for broken DVDs, don't, since anything can happen with mailing DVDs you simply return the broken or scratched DVD with no charges. Netflix has not been a perfectly smooth ride. There have been some articles about the availability of new releases for avid users. Some have done studies showing that the more DVD rentals per month sometimes results in not receiving your top choice of movies. This of course is quite controversial and I am sure Netflix will control the problem if any existed in the first place. When Netflix first started Blockbuster's solution was that movie rentals occur spontaneously, and that few people will take time to order movies in advance. Well do you remember when Block buster offered the monthly DVD rental for $30 bucks a month. Lets just said they started to feel the competition. Wal-Mart, with there awesome distribution capabilities, decided to enter the online DVD rental market. At the time Netflix had expanded from the original California distribution site to multiple sites. Wal-Mart also expanded shipping centers which helps users get movies faster. One of the best things about Wal-Mart is they offered a cheaper option than Netflix. However, they never where able to keep up with Netflix, and therefore they often could not get the movies to users as fast which caused them to lose some market share. Walmart sold their online DVD rental service to Netflix. Walmart would close its online DVD rental store and direct customers to Netflix. Current Walmart subscribers would be allowed a one-year Netflix subscription at the current Walmart rate. Ever heard of FilmCaddy, well Block buster would not make it obvious, but they owned it! They started the distribution center in Phoenix. It did well, and eventually they started their own DVD rental service and became the biggest competitor to Netflix. To be thorough we better mention the small guys which include DVDBarn, Qwikfliks, DVDAvenue,and Cleanfilms. Blockbuster is now expanding and already lowered there monthly service from $19 to $17.50 a month. It seems like there is going to be a heated battle for the online DVD rental service. It looks like the big winner is the customer!
Question: I am trying to decide between Netflix and Blockbuster online DVD rental service; which is better? Tiffany, Windsor CO Answer: This depends if you have a Blockbuster store nearby. If so, then Blockbuster is probably better. Otherwise, I suggest Netflix. For more details read the Free DVD Rental Comparison article.
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