Netflix To Crackdown On Password Sharing (2 Viewers)

[Josh Steinberg]

That’s not really a big deal despite what the clickbait headlines might say. Netflix didn’t produce the show and doesn’t own it; it’s content licensed from 20th Television. The pre-determined license period is ending. Happens all the time.

 

[bmasters9]

I can't stand using a platform I'm almost on the verge of cancelling but the staying on another month because they get an exclusive "big name" director's film seemingly forever tied to their brand.

Or a big name star, like Joey King-- several of her films have been/will be on Netflix only, with no disc option (those including The Kissing Booth series, Radium Girls, and the upcoming Uglies).

 

[Alex...]

Netflix Announces the End of DVD Mailing

The original Netflix subscription service is coming to an end. Don't worry, the streaming service [...]

comicbook.com

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Netflix Announces the End of DVD Mailing

The original Netflix subscription service is coming to an end. Don't worry, the streaming service [...]

comicbook.com

Wow. I thought that the DVD mailing service stopped sometime before 2010.

 

[Bartman]

Netflix Announces the End of DVD Mailing

The original Netflix subscription service is coming to an end. Don't worry, the streaming service [...]

comicbook.com

Bummer! I use Netflix DVD to preview new releases to help make Blu-ray buying decisions. I also use it for old TV series, I'm currently rewatching The Wire. At one time they had almost every Criterion DVD release, a godsend. Double bummer!!

 

[John Dirk]

Bummer! I use Netflix DVD to preview new releases to help make Blu-ray buying decisions. I also use it for old TV series, I'm currently rewatching The Wire. At one time they had almost every Criterion DVD release, a godsend. Double bummer!!

They won't be able to compete with Netflix's selection but might be good for disc previewing.

https://www.redbox.com/

 

[John Dirk]

Wonder what Netflix will do with it's [presumably] massive disc inventory.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Was never much a fan of their disc mailing service -- I ran into problems a bit too often between scratched discs, lost discs and simply not getting what I actually wanted (sometimes even because they stocked or sent a different version than what I wanted IIRC) when I wanted them.

When Blockbuster tried to compete more directly against NF w/ their own mailing service launch that combined w/ in-store for what they called "Total Access", that I found much better than NF... although they didn't have quite as good selection IIRC. Too bad that didn't last, and they faded away a few years later.

Funny thing to note about all this is I (and quite a few of us enthusiasts online) probably owned a larger DVD collection at home than any local Blockbuster (here NYC to boot) or typical Mom & Pop rental stores (that still existed) for at least the first few years of the DVD era from the late-90's to early-00's. Family and friends used to joke about how I can open my own DVD rental store or something, LOL.

Well, maybe very soon, I (and many other enthusiasts/collectors) will once again own a larger BD/UHD collection than any rental biz (both local and online) once NF's disc rental biz goes away...

I probably haven't rented any discs in over a decade now (since Blockbuster's Total Access shut down) -- yes, I did briefly try Red Box a couple times or so, but didn't find it all that compelling at all. There's actually a couple local, throwback Mom & Pop rental stores that sprung up in my neighborhood (that seems to love giving that sorta small biz a chance) several years back, but I've never felt like trying them though -- they might actually even stock some more eclectic stuff (or at least some reasonably well-known Criterion titles) given the clientele here. The growing digital/streaming biz is definitely keeping me from wanting to try... NVM the fact I still continue to grow my own disc collection albeit at somewhat slower pace of late...

_Man_

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Wonder what Netflix will do with it's [presumably] massive disc inventory.

I think a lot of their discs were acquired via revenue sharing deals with studios; it’s how it also worked at the major video store chains when I worked at Blockbuster a million years ago. There were agreements in place that copies would be destroyed when no longer necessary.

I would guess that Netflix received tons of discs on spindles without traditional retail packaging. The effort it would take to package those titles into something sellable probably far exceeds the value they hold. Studios and retailers have difficulty liquidating excess inventory of sealed new product - if that’s barely worth it for them, I can’t imagine there’s a ton of value to be extracted here.

 

[Bartman]

Wonder what Netflix will do with it's [presumably] massive disc inventory.

Probably scrap them. Most discs are scratched and I bet there's no artwork, so no used market for them. I'm VERY selective about what I buy on DVD these days, I'm running out of storage room. I bet others are the same.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Probably scrap them. Most discs are scratched and I bet there's no artwork, so no used market for them. I'm VERY selective about what I buy on DVD these days, I'm running out of storage room. I bet others are the same.

I don't buy discs anymore. Went from approx. 40+ purchases a year to around 3. Yes, storage room is the culprit.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I don't buy discs anymore. Went from approx. 40+ purchases a year to around 3. Yes, storage room is the culprit.

My disc purchasing is way down, too, for similar reasons -- in my case, (1) cost, (2) portability, and (3) storage space.

 

[John Dirk]

I pretty much only buy UHD discs at this point but will grab a standard Blu Ray if it contains an Atmos track. Redbox does sell their inventory and there are excellent values available.

 

[DaveF]

I subscribed to Netflix for a couple years around 2000 and loved the disc by mail service. That was peak movie watching for me. I really loved that service at the time.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Blockbuster shoved metal stakes through their VHS tapes when they got rid of those, just so they couldn’t be fished out of the dumpsters.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Because they were contractually obligated to be destroyed.

Rather than purchasing individual cassettes from studios, Blockbuster would receive cassettes in bulk from studios under a revenue sharing agreement; when the tapes were no longer needed, they weren’t property of Blockbuster, they were property of the studios. There was no practical way to reuse them and the cost to return them would have been prohibitive. Therefore, the contracts stipulated they would be destroyed.

 

[Malcolm R]

My Blockbuster sold used copies of movies to customers. I used to go there more for the retail sales than rentals.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My Blockbuster sold used copies of movies to customers. I used to go there more for the retail sales than rentals.

Yes, the contracts dictated that a certain amount of each title could be sold used to the customer.

But there were also instances where a store might have been sent 200 copies of a new release. Once the initial newness of the release worse off and the demand subsided, stores didn’t have capacity to keep that kind of excess inventory, nor demand to sell them all as used copies. Many were destroyed as per their licensing agreements with the studios.

 

[billO']

Yes, the contracts dictated that a certain amount of each title could be sold used to the customer.

But there were also instances where a store might have been sent 200 copies of a new release. Once the initial newness of the release worse off and the demand subsided, stores didn’t have capacity to keep that kind of excess inventory, nor demand to sell them all as used copies. Many were destroyed as per their licensing agreements with the studios.

I belonged to the Blockbuster Mail Rental service up until the time they discontinued it. Around the time it was due to cease ops, I received an email from them that they were selling off their inventory and to do a search by title for copies available for puchase. I still had about 75 titles on my queue so I searched for ones that I knew were OOP or were priced high on Amazon. They had about 5 or 6 that I wanted and the prices were reasonable, about $3 to $5 each so I bought those. They were discs only, still in the Blockbuster sleeves. I checked them all on my computer and they didn't show any defects.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I remember those days too. As I said in an earlier post, the licensing agreements with the studios determined how many copies of each film could be retained in store, how many could be sold as previously viewed items, and how many were required to be destroyed. Not every single former rental disc was destroyed. But in order to have an adequate number of brand new releases available on hand, we’d get far more copies than would be useful months or years later, and flooding the marketplace with them at that time would have simply devalued the discs and the content.

There were also certain studios that did not wish to participate in revenue sharing deals and certain titles which were exempt from those deals, which meant that Blockbuster had to purchase copies of those titles, and for inventory items that Blockbuster wholly owned, they could sell them off as they pleased.

I remember very clearly the weekly “pick lists” coming in with the details for which copies of which titles to pull off the shelf and which ones to destroy. We had special devices for rendering VHS tapes and DVDs unplayable. Although it was tempting to want to take home a disc that was no longer going to be used, it just wasn’t worth risking termination and arrest over - I wasn’t gonna throw my future away to sneak home a disc that was designated for destruction.

Anyhow, all that Blockbuster stuff is ages ago - their service must’ve gone dark what, ten years ago? Fifteen? It’s an entirely different world now. For Netflix to throw in the towel on disc by mail rental suggests to me that the infrastructure costs of maintaining and storing vast disc libraries in multiple warehouses (at a time where real estate prices are out of control) that have to be delivered by mail (at a time when postage rates are rising while quality of service is declining) was no longer a profitable venture.

Someone posted that the disc by mail division was bringing in $100 million in revenue yearly, but what we don’t know is what the operational costs of running that division are.