This post on Jason’s blog got me thinking about how I’ve had my current Netflix rental sitting at home for almost a whole month and still haven’t watched it - they are really loving me as a customer.
Why? Because I’ve got a continually growing backlog of stuff I want to watch that’s ready to go, whenever I find / make the time to watch something, but that list is growing a lot faster than I’m knocking stuff off of it. I haven’t even watched last night’s Lost episode yet, which I think is the first time I haven’t seen the episode the same day it aired since I started watching the show (mid season 2).
I have a feeling that I could easily go without having Netflix at all, but it is still nice to have when an occasional movie reference pops up and reminds me of something I want to see, and it’s just so convenient. I think for now I might clear out my queue and give my spot to either Martha or the kids’ queues, until I find something I really want to see again.
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We’ve lowered our plan, 2 out at a time and 4 a month (something like that). Mainly because I’ve been downloading a lot and putting them on my ipod to playback downstairs. But the movies just sitting there, like you, was a big reason too.
I have signed up for canceled and resigned up for netlfix 4 or 5 times in the past 5 years for so. Kristi and I cancelled for the last time several months ago and until there is online delivery we will not subscribe to any online movie rental service again. It just was not worth it for us. We would have to watch movies quite often to make it a better deal than just renting from our local video shop.
Why don’t we start a business where we do online movie rentals that you download and watch right there, right then? Come on, guys, let’s get it started! Family business!
I think there are actually already a couple companies going for that model right now, but I’m not sure how successful they’ll be.
As for it being an opportunity for a family business, I don’t think this one would be a very good candidate. The startup costs would be huge, and even in the best case scenario you’d probably run at a loss for the first year or so. Add on top of that the fact that other larger companies are already on it and have more time and financial resources as an advantage, and it makes the risk pretty high, since I think with something like this there won’t be a lot of room for competition; there’ll probably be one company that emerges as the leader and the rest will fall.
As a matter of fact, I’m not even sure that it’s the right time (or if there is a right time) for this to succeed anyway. The key would be making it accessible to non-tech people, like the iTunes music store (as an example), because the tech-savvy people will be frustrated by the fact that they will always be able to download the stuff faster using bittorent (since it’s distributed and non-encrypted) without jumping through hoops like playing it on the right devices, etc. Again, I point to the music business as an example: it’s easier than ever to download music for free, but online sales are still successful in spite of that because they made it easier than the alternative for most people.
they already have that: it’s called bit torrent. our netflix seems to be serving us well so far. joey has a constant stream of movies and we watch at least one a week.
if we go to the video store, we end up renting like three movies and maybe buying one. plus the late fees now that our friend isn’t the manager anymore. we can’t afford to go to the video shop.
Yeah at the stage of life we’re in with the boys and all, netflix is great. We probably watch at least one a week along with the convience and wide selection its more than worth it.
Word, Nathan.
Yeah, I think that one reason I will keep Netflix available at least is the selection. Blockbuster and the other local rental stores will probably never carry the more obscure documentaries or other independent films, etc.
Well, we don’t rent from the video store either. We just don’t watch movies.