For those of you following the Netflix saga, when we last left our scrappy upstart, they watched Blockbuster take a 28-day head start on movies from Warner Brothers, while they willingly gave up that advantage to have better access to streaming rights. During this development, I noted that other movie companies would likely follow their lead.
This week, two announcements show my prediction coming true: Blockbuster has announced day/date streaming and rental deals with Fox and Sony, while Netflix has agreed to a 28-day delay on carrying titles from Universal and Fox, again to get access to a larger library of titles to stream and better pricing on movies.
Netflix is betting at least a piece of their farm on streaming, and with their extension into the iPad and other portable devices, it could prove to be prescient. Blockbuster, on the other hand, has warned it may file for bankruptcy.
Does this water down Netflix too much for you? Or is the 28-day wait acceptable?
SOURCE: Consumerist 1 and 2
