A new deal with Universal and Fox means that you won’t see your new releases until 28 days after they’ve already become available elsewhere. The first release affected by this new deal will be Avatar. If you were planning on renting the DVD from Netflix so you could get caught up on your award-winning, excessively long, CG-animated, regurgitated film you will have to wait until May 20th. Everyone else will be checking out this race of blue people on April 22nd.
You might wonder why in the world Netflix would make such a deal. On the potential plus side, depending on how you actually use Netflix, you’ll gain access to a bunch of TV shows via streaming video. These shows are free to you as a subscriber. Stay tuned for previous seasons of “24″ and “Lie to Me.” You can also catch “Arrested Development” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” in their entirety. The Universal side of the deal brings us movies like ”Gosford Park,” “Being John Malkovich” and “Do the Right Thing.”
Depending on how you use Netflix, this news either makes you extremely angry or you’re indifferent to the whole thing. It seems like a large portion of the geek demographic will be happy to see more streaming television shows online, but I doubt the average consumer wants to watch reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on their computer. As a matter of fact, I doubt the average Netflix customer even knows they can watch stuff online as opposed to just renting DVD’s.
What’s most interesting about this deal between Universal, Fox, and Netflix is the previous deal already in place between Universal, Fox, and Blockbuster. Blockbuster has been going downhill for a while now because of companies like Hulu, Netflix, and Redbox. They are just more convenient than going to the local video store and then worrying about late fees and whatnot. In an effort to save itself, Blockbuster literally sold out to Universal and Fox, giving them first lien on 459 stores in Canada, in exchange for being able to provide newly released DVD movies on the same day they’re released. Also, I’m pretty sure Comcast offers new movies On Demand say day as the DVD release.
Do you use Netflix? How do you feel about having to wait a whole month to see new releases?