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The basic premise of online movie rental is pretty simple. First, a customer must join the service and then they create a list of titles they would like to see. Then the DVD's on the list are mailed to the customer. The customer then watches them and sends them back in a prepaid envelope. The growth and popularity of online movie rental can be tied to several advantages over the tradition movie rental store. This model of business has revolutionized the movie rental industry for several reasons.
The first reason is the idea that you can join a club and not a DVD one at a time. The effect on this is you are charged no matter if you take advantage of the service or not. This is a way to provide a consistent revenue stream from online DVD rental. The opposite is true as well. Since many programs offer unlimited rentals for a flat monthly fee, the consumers who rent a lot of movies become losing propositions for the company. This is because the cost of the prepaid envelopes will exceed the fee paid by the customer, but for the majority of consumers it is profitable.
Second is the idea of no late fees. You can basically keep the movies as long as you would like. You will still be charged so the online DVD rental program doesn't care. They actually will save money because they will not be paying for any postage. So the long you keep the more profitable it becomes.
Third reason is the selection. Consumers ten years ago had to go there local store to pick from the movies they had. If they want some obscure title they could be out of luck. The options you had for movies was limited to the amount of shelf space that your rental store had. Since the internet has the ability for limitless shelf space the choice of movie is seemingly endless. Netflix alone boasts over 100,000 titles and Blockbuster online lists 80,000. These libraries will continue to grow and consumers now have so much choices it is overwhelming.
Does this mean the end of your local DVD rental store? The market will decide and the local DVD rental stores are more than likely at risk compared to than the big chains. Now, large chains such as blockbuster have an online DVD rental program while continuing to maintain their over 6500 locals. Having this infrastructure allows Blockbuster to offer something that the other online DVD rental programs do not, in-store exchanges.
Even with the option of in-store exchanges, Blockbuster is not the market leader in online DVD rental and they really are playing catch up to Netflix. Their business model has revolutionized the DVD rental industry and the market will decide what business model consumers like.
A new way to rent DVD has happen in the last ten years. There are three reasons for online DVD rental revolution. Find out what they are and why this industry will continue to grow.
I remember when signing up with Intelliflix for $188 a year thinking what a great deal I just gotten, and how much money I was saving compared to the competition. Intelliflix claims to have over sixty thousand movie titles, rent video games, and also rent adult titles. I sincerely doubt that they have anywhere close to sixty thousand movie titles, and they have recently suspended their online game rentals. They still claim to rent other movie titles, but a couple of movies every few months, and it hardly seems like they even do that anymore.
For the first couple of months I received movies regularly, but then they stopped sending me movies. I went almost sixty days with well over a hundred movies in my queue without receiving one movie! They do not provide a customer service number and you have to open tickets through their email system. Of course when you get a response it will be about hoe they understand your frustration and will try to do better, but they still do not send movies on any timetable that could be considered regular. I go weeks without getting movies. I requested a refund more than once, but they claim they cannot refund annual memberships for any reason whatsoever. If it was not past the ninety-day mark I would dispute it with my credit card company. I even emailed the President of the company who boasted about publishing his email so regular customers could contact him. I received no response.
I have recently joined two other Online DVD Rental companies to see which one would work for me. I only will join at a monthly rate; I learned my lesson with annual plans. They are both excellent companies and actually sent me movies, and carried a wide variety of titles.
First let us look at Blockbuster Online. They have a tremendous amount of movie and television tiles and always have the newest releases. I usually received my movies in one business day. They also allow you to turn in your movies at local Blockbuster stores and give you free in store movie rental coupons every month. Their site is easy to navigate, and they also offer a trial period at a reduced fee. I took advantage of this offer to try them out.
The second company Netflix has just about everything put on DVD available for rental and all the new releases. One unique option they have is instant viewing online, and they are adding new titles to this service every month. I usually get my movies in one to two days. They also recently announced they will be offering a new service to play movies directly to people's televisions at home through the Internet in the near future. Their site also has easy navigation and they also have the American Film Institute all time movie list which is great for movie buffs.
In summary look around at all the plans available, and do not sign up for an annual plan. Avoid Intelliflix at all cost. Both Blockbuster and Netflix are great companies, but in the end I stayed with Blockbuster simply because of their speed in sending me movies.