Netflix inks with Universal and Twentieth Century Fox: first TV streams, more films, and 28 day rental delay
By Thomas Ricker 
posted April 9th 2010 8:55AM
posted April 9th 2010 8:55AM
Everyone's streaming media darling, Netflix, has just reached terms with both Universal and Twentieth Century Fox. Both agreements beef up Netflix's streaming content while limiting Netflix to renting DVD and Blu-ray discs 28 days after the retail street date -- yup, just like with Warner Brothers. To put that into perspective, while Twentieth Century Fox's "Avatar" DVD/Blu-ray will hit shelves on April 22nd it won't be available for Netflix rental until the end of May. On the plus side we've got a first time, Netflix TV streaming agreement with TCF -- albeit, released in a window it decides. Content includes the complete prior seasons of shows like "24," "Bones," and "Lie to Me" in addition to older library titles like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Can't say we didn't see this one coming.
Yeah, those shows were put out there the other day. I threw them in my instant queue and I've been running through the final season of Prison Break.
@CptnDriveThru lol you too I love netflix it doubled my love for my xbox
@CptnDriveThru
Yea I started watching Prison Break this weekend and am kind of addicted.
@CptnDriveThru
I noticed the x-files seasons on there and it made me quite excited.
Netflix has awesome "older" movies as well as "older" tv shows. I dont mind waiting for movies for a month or even 6 months. I used to wait for videotape for 6 months. Its no big deal when netflix has 1000s of movies/shows to watch ON DEMAND. "The Office", "Angels and Demons", "Voltron", "Murder She Wrote" etc. Blockbuster riped people off in the past, like changing return time from 1159pm to 1159am. They gained millions of dollars of late fees for that move. Sneaky basturds. Blockbuster did not even attempt to compete with netflix and redbox. Gas stations at least across the street sees the competitions' prices and changes to the SAME price. Blockbuster does not even attempt to match price and plan. I am sticking with Netflix.
The delay isn't so bad when you consider that the waiting time for new releases was practically a month anyway. Maybe this will give them enough time to stock up on more copies so that they can meet demand.
@Xenoterranos Yeah, even when new titles get in there I still have to wait a month or more to actually get a copy in my mailbox. The evil Blockbuster is looking better and better. As soon as they stream to Mac's I'm jumping ship.
@Xenoterranos
Good philosophy! See good in bad; I like!
@Xenoterranos
I don't mind the delay. I just want more HD and for Netflix to categorise HD movies like SD, rather than just genre = HD
@mjsd555 blockbuster is going to sink as soon as these windows stop mattering. netflix has been working on streaming way longer than blockbuster, and blockbuster's business model has always sucked. im staying with netflix. They have a good business strategy and are very good to their customers
@mjsd555
I wouldn't count on Blockbuster for much. As many people found out after they started their "No late fees" debacle, they just cut the number of new release copies they got in by a large number so they never had it in stock. You'd be lucky to get it 2 or 3 weeks later
@Xenoterranos That is the same BS logic that Netflix was using.
They will get that same number in stock a month later regardless if they delay it or not, if anything the month gives them time to gauge demand because most people don't add movies until they are actually in stock. All this is doing is guaranteeing that none will be able to get the movie in the first month. No benefit at all because the delay just shifts the demand to a later date. It may also cause piracy of those movies to rise as people download the newly released DVD rips rather than waiting for netflix. This is a bad thing and they should be called out on it.
@Xenoterranos Yeah, I'm still waiting for Inglorious Basterds, 4 months later.
@Xenoterranos great so now everyone will add it to their Queues 28 days later and the wait time can be 2 months yay awesome
@Michael Kirschner
That's ok, 28 Days Later we'll all be dead or zombies anyway.
@mattcoz Just buy it...you wont regret it.
This is cool. Tim Tebow Sucks.
It's time to dump Netflix.
@VGPOP
After I watch all 8 seasons of 24...
I am going to write my Congressman about the delay on DVDs. This is the kind of stuff they live for. Blockbuster is flaunting the fact that they have news releases in-store AND online, just seems unfair to the consumer.
Considering that on average the #12 movie in my queue is the next one that will ship out due to inventory the delay probably won't be a big deal. I honestly think it's just going to cause more movie downloads and not help the industry at all. Just because I want to watch a flick on Blu Ray doesn't mean that I'll shell out $30 for it just so I don't have to wait.
@Waltah
But on the other hand.....Buffy!
@Waltah "Just because I want to watch a flick on Blu Ray doesn't mean that I'll shell out $30 for it just so I don't have to wait." Exactly, most of the stuff I want on Netflix is stuff I didn't feel the need to shell out to see in the theaters. So waiting another 4 weeks beyond the release to video isn't going to kill me. Now if they could just get a good 1080p with full surround stream going with all of their blu ray content, I wouldn't even need to get them in the mail anymore. I have a 18Mbps connection so I'm not worried about bandwidth :-)
Cancelling netflix for Blockbuster in 3...2...1..
@yaksplat
Too late. Blockbuster just went under.
@yaksplat
Not even this is enough to make me go back and deal with blockbusters bullshit. I cut ties with them after 2 different stores charged me the full prices for DVD's I never rented.
@admlshake
This happened to me once with RedBox. I lost the cartridge you use to put the dvd back in the machine, and so I dropped into that mailbox they have hanging off the back. Apparently, that mailbox dumps directly to /dev/null because I got charged 27 bucks about 20 days later.
call me a Netflix fanboi if you want but this changes absolutely nothing for me anyway.
I hear you can get the films 28 days before DVD release on your favorite torrent site.
@nsfw
LMAO that comment just made my day bro!
I don't care how long they make Netflix and Redbox wait for new releases. I am still gonna wait until Netflix and/or Redbox gets them. I don't want to get raked over the coals by Blockbusters fees. Nor am I gonna go buy a DVD no matter how long the studios make us wait. Iam used to waiting 6 months or more back in the day of Beta and VHS, so don't strong arm me in the name of a dollar. Half the movies coming out, actually more than that are a waste of time or are crappy "re-imaginations" of the better originals.
The movie studios wanted this deal so they can sell more On-Demand rentals. The people who are going to buy a full copy of this movie will do so regardless.
I actually see this hurting Netflix. Its bad enough having movies that are sitting in my queue for months because Netflix doesn't have enough copies. Now with a full month delay it might take 3 months for me to actually see a movie that is really popular. I might as well cancel Netflix, stick with Hulu/Fancast for TV and my PS3/Cable co. for the movies I really want to see when they come out.
What is really sad is when I started Netflix I received movies nearly as fast as they went in my queue, now it takes weeks for new movies to even get to me, and I'm stuck by almost having to rent older movies I have barely an interest in to feel like I'm getting my money's worth.
@LowSky
Bingo!
These people saying this won't affect them are really thinking this thoroughly.
It's not a guarantee that after 28 days later movie is available, it will get shipped to you the next day.
Netflix will have to create a new name for "Availability"
"Extremely very long late"
@LowSky seriously, i ended up with a bunch of shitty movies i didnt even care about to even watch sometimes, just returning them the next day.
At least might get to see some new shiny red words like (Extremely Very Very Long Wait) in our expected availability column.
This is so hard for me because I really hate this tactic by the studios to control the home media release windows. Something that really they should get through their heads is that nobody is going to buy something they weren't going to because it's not available for 28 days. In fact all they are really doing is ensuring that some people who WOULD have rented it will now download it from a torrent site that will have it on DAY ONE! Because it only takes one pirate and one copy to make it available to everybody.
Good job studios, you made more money again last year than any year previous (just like every year) yet you keep convincing others that you must protect your industry because of all those nasty evil pirates.
How long before they tell you that you can't pay someplace like Apple or Amazon to rent that movie for $4.99 in HD for at least 28 days either.
Not that they don't massively delay releasing to some of those outlets too.
@ttringle
Hear hear. At some point the studios decided that selling plastic discs was the most important thing, not selling movies.
Considering I tend to rent older movies now anyways as I buy more Blu-rays thanks to amazon....do it's no big deal to me in the 28 day wait....more streaming content is great tho
What I want to know is why Redlion in particular (who, unlike Netflix dont have any kind of online watch service) didnt tell the MPAA and the studios to go pound sand and then use the first sale rules, buy disks at retail from Wal-Mart, Best Buy or elsewhere and release them on day one anyway regardless of the studios wanting to have an artificial delay.
In doing so, they also get sales from people who want the movie but dont want to pay the price to buy a copy and dont want to wait 28 days for it on Netflix.
I don't like DVD's. I'll wait three month's if it means it'll be be in Instant View.
Wait, does this mean I'll have to wait 28 days before I can watch 28 Days Later?
this is stupid. I'm never gonna buy a movie a la cart, on demand or dvd. I'm so sick of being taken advantage of by entertainment companies. They've made enough money off of me already on all the format changes alone over the years.
I'm becoming a Netflix fanatic... I was hooked on HD rentals from Apple on the Apple TV, but the average cost per movie is ridiculous in comparison. a whole $5.00 for a 720p-ish flick (24-hours worth) vs. $11 for as many Blu-rays as I can get through my queue.
I think the hassle of using discs and 'the mail' outweighs the laziness I get to bask in by just renting something of the iTV and having it playable in just minutes. I rent movies from Netflix (and Apple, when I did) that I'm not comfortable spending the $10-$20 outright on BD's that I might not like.
For instance, a 28-day delay for Avatar means nothing to me...I'll have that pre-ordered [for purchase] on Amazon anyway.
I'm missing something. Complete seasons of "24," "Bones," "Lie to Me," and "Buffy" are already on Netflix streaming. So what is this deal with TCF bringing to the table?
@Carld They're on instant view now, but they weren't always. I know 24 wasn't available a few months ago, and Bones just shows up on instant view a little while back. So while the press is a tad behind the times in terms of when instant view was available, this deal definitely is making a difference.
I noticed this last weekend and was excited to finally get the Fox TV Library as part of my Instant Watch (No O.C. though), I knew their had to be a catch though. But unlike the Warner deal at least the customer is actually getting something in exchange.
But I'm really sick of companies going out of their way to figure out how to screw their customers. I saw on the news this morning that companies like Disney are going to make their Rental DVDs as "undesireable" as possible to force people to buy them. Things like adding a ton of non-skippable commercials and gimping the DVD so you can't use the main menu or view any of the extras. It's just bullshit the lengths these companies will go through to try and force you to purchase their BS. Look at Apple and their announcements yesterday and now they are gimping Adobe's CS5.
The other thing is Netflix is charging a PREMIUM for the Blu-ray discs, now I have to put up with waiting an extra month and GIMPED discs? That's...... They are doing an amazing job with Instant Watch but screwing us on the services that we're paying a PREMIUM price for.
All this talk about 28 Days Later just makes me want to rent that movie again.
I think this is all about trying to make On Demand used more. They are trying to get consumers hooked on that. It just won't work tho. I hate how On Demand works. If I fall asleep or shut it off, I gotta watch it within 24-48 hours or it's 6 bucks down the drain. I lost one because I started it at 7 one night and tried to finish it at 7:05 the next day. Gone. Never Again.
@whatthewhereis
It's not about OnDemand it's about people not buying DVDs anymore and certainly not Blu-rays so instead of making movies people actually want to buy they are doing all of this crap and raising the cost of Purchasing said Blu-rays at the same time. So it's a double f u to the consumer.
@malexandria1 Back during the days of VHS, movies were 90 bucks out of the gate. It wasn't about selling them to the consumer right away because they wanted a Rental only window. They had control of Rentrak and decided how much per rental they got. I think they would like a rental only window now where the majority of the revenue goes to them. If Netflix would pay what Comcast etc pay for Demand, they'd get them as well.
If it was about Sale only, they wouldn't even have On Demand, or allow Blockbuster to rent (Blockbuster most likely pays a huge portion of rentals in the first 28 days).