Thursday, January 7, 2010

28 days more to wait

Netflix and Warner Bros. came to an agreement early this week that highlights the change in the way viewers are seeing movies. The studio agreed to release more of its video catalogue to Netflix streaming option (which can be accessed using Xboxes, Roku players and on laptops) if the mail movie giant would agreed to delay release of Warner Bros. films until they have been on sale for 28 days. Read more about it here.

My family has always been avid movie collectors and we have probably 300 movies on DVD or video (parsed down from more than hundreds more when we moved to our new place.) A lot of those movies are courtesy of my sister who bought a lot of movies from classic Audrey Hepburn flicks to anime to horror films. My dad has lots of Westerns and my mom has plenty of romantic comedies. The shelf I claim as my own has maybe 50 movies on it and they run the gamut from mainstream comedy to obscure indie films.

When we moved to the new house, we downsized the movie collection by donating movies we didn't think we would watch again or that we had lukewarm feelings for to the local library. The impetus for us was because we really didn't have the space. It also seemed like a good way to start saving some money since we spent an awful lot on new movies and pre-owned DVDs through the years. I still occasionally buy movies that I really want, like "The House Bunny."

It will be interesting to see if the month wait prompts any users to run out and buy DVDs. My guess is that people who really want to see a film will have already seen it in the theater and the extra four weeks wait won't make much of a difference. As any long-time Netflix user knows, it's nearly impossible to get a movie the week it comes out anyway.

The good news for viewers in all this is that they will be able to see more of the Warner Bros. catalogue on instant play.

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