Netflix Streaming: Dvd’s One Step Closer To Becoming Obsolete

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Netflix Inc’s stock went up past all expectation on Monday after it unveiled the nation’s first streaming only subscription plan. This will allow subscribers to rent movies and their favorite TV shows exclusively over the internet. Now they don’t even have to bother with waiting on an actual DVD to get into their mailbox anymore.

The company says that it was prompted to offer this plan based on huge increases in usage of its streaming only content, which most users have become familiar with as Instant Play. The Instant Play function was a big hit because there was always something to watch in between getting the next movie from your regular queue in the mail. Although Netflix always received high rankings for the short time they took to mail DVDs back and forth to subscriber’s homes, the instant streaming of older movies opened up a new world to renters: one where they didn’t have to choose.

Back in the old days, we would all stare along the walls of new releases in Blockbuster, try to pick two movies that would suit everyone, ...
... check them out, and try to bring them back in time to beat the late charges. With the Instant Play, we can finally own up to wanting to rent cheesy 80’s flicks and chop- chops because we weren’t locked in to a limited amountâ€which we felt had to be new releases. People have rediscovered a plethora of old classics, foreign films, art house movies, frock dramas, TV classics, British classics, pulp, indie flicks and much more through the Instant Play feature. Soon, logging on to see what was available on Instant Play became pleasurable in itself, rather than just a way to pass the time between getting new releases only available through the mail. Netflix was keen to notice the trend, because the profit margin on streaming video is much higher than on DVDs, which have to be acquired, stored, shipped and replaced when damaged.

There are some drawbacks to the new plan for consume though. First is the higher price. The plan is available immediately and the new price is $7.99 per month. This is meant to be competitive with their main rival Hulu, which launched a similar service called Hulu Plus for $7.99 per month last week. However, people who already subscribe to the 1-DVD or 2-DVD per month plans will see a $1 increase come January. Subscribers of the 3-DVD plan will see the biggest rise, from $16.99 to $19.99 per month. The company has recognized that this will probably cost some subscribers to ditch their service, but they hope that the number of people who don’t want to deal with DVDs at all will compensate for those who cancel their subscriptions.

Of course, the biggest problem is that Netflix’s online selection doesn’t normally have the most current releases, and it’s limited in sheer size compared to its DVD library. It will be interesting to see if the new streaming only subscription plan takes off, since many people rent to catch up on what they missed in the theatres, which basically means new releases. If Netflix can increase its online library to the same size and quality of the DVD one during all of this, many people will be hard pressed to ever rent an actual DVD again.

First Netflix greatly helped the demise of companies like Blockbuster because they offered rentals with no late fees, then they catered to our inability to wait for anything by allowing us to watch older flicks online, now they’ve gone ahead and given us the most convenient way yet to rent movies- without even waiting on a DVD. This just might be the first sign of the beginning of the end of the DVD format.