Netflix and Warner Brothers Studios recently revised their movie distribution partnership, and both sides have agreed to suspend new release WB movies rented through Netflix for 28 days from initial DVD release.
“Consumers wanting to rent a Warner Bros. movie day-and-date with the DVD release will be able to rent at a Blockbuster store or digitally through a-la-carte digital models that are significantly more profitable to studios than Netflix or kiosk operator Redbox,” said Ralph Schackart, William Blair & Co. analyst, in a statement.
This could force consumers interested in watching a newly-released movie to purchase it on DVD or Blu-ray. It could also open the door to online streaming models ranging from Roku to CinemaNow — with physical DVD rentals and online rentals more profitable to the movie studio than rental kiosks.
Redbox, the No. 1 movie rental kiosk service, has come under fire from movie studios angry with declining revenue and lowered movie sales.
“The 28-day window allows us to continue making our most popular films available to Netflix subscribers while supporting our sell-through product,” said Rob Sanders, Warner Home Video President, in a statement.
I expect other movie studios to alter their agreements with Netflix by the end of the year, which will give them additional time to market new release DVD’s for sale. Movie studios are beginning to realize that they can’t simply try and shrug off Redbox and Netflix — but need to learn how to work with them and better adapt to the changing content distribution model.
Expect streaming movies via Microsoft Xbox 360, Roku Netflix player, Sony PlayStation 3, and other devices in the living room to continue to rise in popularity in 2010.
Similar posts:
- 10 Mar 10 Netflix, Warner face lawsuit over DVD delays
- 17 Feb 10 Redbox agrees to delay Warner titles 28 days
- 16 Feb 10 Redbox looking into digital distribution
- 28 Jan 10 DVD purchase delay to hurt 40% of kiosk rentals
- 15 Jan 10 Netflix may lose some streaming movies
5 Comments
-100 to Netflix and -10 to Warner
Otherwise, this deal just wreaks and will probably lead to more people pirating Warner new releases, not buying DVD's like they hope it will force people to do.
Warner Bros. are idiots.
About this category
Movies
- The movie industry is doing its utter best to trump illegal movie downloads. This section covers the latest movie technologies, distribution methods and what all of this means for you.More about this
Online Video
- More and more people take out their camcorder or mobile phone to eventually share videos on online platforms like YouTube. Learn what online video can do for you!More about this
Most popular headlines
Sony's new ad mocks Wii, Xbox 360 (3)
- Sat 20 Mar 10:02 by Randomus
- Game Consoles
A week after publicly unveiling its PlayStation 3 Move motion controller at GDC, Sony has launch a new ad attacking the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii game consoles.
Microsoft: PS3's Blu-ray is a burden (5)
- Thu 18 Mar 00:00 by JaredNewman
- Blu-Ray writers & players, Game Consoles
Microsoft's Xbox product director Aaron Greenberg said the Xbox 360's lack of a Blu-ray player has actually been crucial to the console's success.
Sony considers discontinuing the PSP Go (4)
- Thu 18 Mar 02:00 by Randomus
- Game Consoles
It's possible Sony will pull the plug on its struggling PSP Go mobile gaming unit, as it has become obvious the company dropped the ball a bit in the mobile gaming business.
Spain allows P2P, link-sharing of copyrighted works (10)
- Tue 16 Mar 05:00 by JaredNewman
- Piracy
As long as no profits are made, it's legal to share copyrighted material through peer-to-peer transfers or link to it through a Web site, a Spanish court ruled.
