Netflix Cuts Prices Again; DVD Rental Price War in Full Effect
Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:40PM EDT
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Netflix is cutting the price on its most popular service, the three-discs-at-a-time rental plan, to $16.99 a month, matching Blockbuster in what is shaping up to be a bitter, grueling price war for both companies.
Netflix's prices are now exactly in line with Blockbuster's mail-only service. Both companies have a $13.99 plan (two movies at a time) and an $8.99 plan (one movie at a time). (Blockbuster's "Total Access" plans are a dollar more and allow for in-store disc exchanges as well.)
Netflix stock has been hammered as a result of this and earlier price cuts. You can now buy a share of NFLX stock for less than the three-disc monthly subscription fee. Yow.
Has Netflix's rental model begun to stagnate? With 6.8 million subscribers as of March, analysts are suggesting that the company doesn't seem to be growing any further and may in fact be sliding backwards as customers head elsewhere. Meanwhile, Blockbuster has been growing its online service immensely, now boasting 3 million subscribers vs. 1.5 million in late 2006.
Business aside, the question that might ought to be asked is not whether Blockbuster or Netflix will win this battle, but whether the era of DVD rentals is beginning to come to a close, with online video becoming a more and more viable alternative. Even Netflix itself has gotten into online video lately, with a well-received streaming video platform (included in your subscription fee).
Are you still renting DVDs (and if so, from which company?), or have you started the great migration to online?
Comments on Netflix Cuts Prices Again; DVD Rental Price War in Full Effect
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2 Posted by cnull on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse
Yow bet.
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3 Posted by dcsoccer25 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:39PM EDT Report Abuse
theyowman, perhaps because the stock used to be worth a considerably larger amount of money.
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4 Posted by theyowman on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:06PM EDT Report Abuse
Yes, but as you can see by the middle three letters in my name i am particularly interested in the way he used it. You see, i started the word in common conversation as a bridge between a particular situation and an abrupt lack of words to describe the situation. Say, for instance, you see a man walking down the street.. He slips on a banana peel and you witness this event. Besides the forthcoming laughter immediately followed by dire concern, a usefull word to insert here is "Yow!". In Chris's reply to my comment, he used it in a different way, replacing the standard "you" with "yow" which misaligns the word with it's intended meaning.
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5 Posted by collarncuffsboy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:28PM EDT Report Abuse
When I read the post, and saw the "Yow", I assumed he meant it as you would also use "Wow" or "OMG". He was expressing a feeling of surprise or amusement. My roommates and I are using NetFlix at the $13.99 2 DVDs at a time level. We are considering jumping to the 3 DVD's at a time level.
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6 Posted by cnull on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse
theyowman - The usage in my comment was just a joke. In the article, it's meant merely as a general exclamation of surprise. Cheers.
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7 Posted by jirojas on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:35PM EDT Report Abuse
Using Netflix's 2 at a time plan. No problems so far. I would hate for Netflix to go kaput. Competing markets is the best thing for us customers, that means freedom of choice. The last thing we need is one company owning all of the movie rental market.
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8 Posted by nomij@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:40PM EDT Report Abuse
I like Netflix and in particular I like their Online Video that you can watch without delay. It works great and video quality is very nice. If they charged me a fee for it, I would pay it..."IF" they would put some quality videos up to watch. Pretty much old stuff as is, but some entertainment. I think they are missing the boat on this service. Say 5 hours is worth $2? I don't know...but they could make money with it. I am sure that copyrights come into the equation at some point, but still they better get moving before someone else steals the idea...like maybe Blockbuster? Which they have zero creativity. They are just copying Netflix in my opinion. Netflix should stop defending and start attacking with new ideas. Thats how I run my web business. Big companies like blockbuster can't react fast enough, and have (like I said) zero creativity, so they just die on the vine.
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9 Posted by matt_archbold2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:11PM EDT Report Abuse
I had netflix for a couple years, and i loved it. But when i heard of blockbuster introducing the "Total Access" package, i switched. Not because i grew tired of netflix, but because i felt that the ability to go to blockbuster with one of my online rentals and grab another movie without waiting was great. I have been with blockbuster for about 6 months thus far and have used that service at least once every couple weeks. Not having to wait for a movie to be mailed back, and another one sent out is great.
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10 Posted by faerie_dragon@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:57PM EDT Report Abuse
I'm a Netflix subscriber and I like their service. I also like the ability to instantly watch a movie online. My one complaint about that is the selection of movies available for online viewing are very weak. Most of them are low rated movies of 3 stars or less. Very few of them are premium movies. Thus I don't use that service as often as I would like to. Netflix has always been great about handling problems. They send out a replacement DVD before they get the bad disc back. I was thrilled to find they dropped the price of their service. I wasn't planning on changing. So far the only thing I've seen that Blockbuster has over Netflix is the ability to buy 3 and get one free from their used DVDs. Having a physical store to go into can be a benefit if you like shopping that way, but I like the preview of the DVDs Netflix has for show. It lets me decide whether I want to watch the movie before I put it in my queue. I agree with nomij that Netflix needs to do some creative marketing. In fact, I think I'll look for feedback on their website and suggest that to them.
1 Posted by theyowman on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:06PM EDT Report Abuse
I'm interested to know, why, in this sentence: "You can now buy a share of NFLX stock for less than the three-disc monthly subscription fee. Yow." Did you use the word Yow?