Blockbuster to compete Netflix in online DVD rental business

August 11, 2004

The online movie renting business is booming. More and more people learn about the ease of it. All you have to do is open an account at an online movie renting company and for a fixed fee you are able to rent as many movies as you like. There's once catch however, you can rent a fixed amount of movies at a time.

Because you need to ship the movies
back and they need to ship them to you it depends on how many movies you can
view a month for your montly fee but some smart asses are able to get a decent
amount. Netflix in the US is the largest company offering these services and
simlilair services are available in the UK and Europe. Now Blockbuster one of
the largest US 'offline' movie rental companies is also going
to rent movies online.

Blockbuster said online subscribers will also get two free in-store movie rental coupons every month. The promotion is a step toward integration of its online and in-store offerings sometime next year. Such integration would allow subscribers to freely roam between online and store services, the company said. Netflix, which last year won a patent for its online DVD rental service, currently dominates the field, with more than 1 million subscribers. But the company is feeling the heat as more competitors enter the market.

In June, retail giant Wal-Mart introduced its own online movie rental service that's also priced a notch lower than Netflix's. Blockbuster expects its new offering will boost its profits and present a challenge to its competitors. The company said that online rental subscriptions were worth about 0 million in 2003.

Netflix
will get some serious competition as Blockbuster has also set up a different
pricing scheme. At Blockbuster you can rent up to three movies at once for
$ 19.99 as where Netflix asks you to pay $ 21.99 a month. If three is not
enough you can rent five for $ 29.99 and even eight at $ 39.99 a month.
More details can be found in the article on ZDNet.com

Source: ZDNet.com