Re:Blockbuster CEO 'Confused by Fascination' With Netflix
by hugh on Tuesday August 19, 2008 @04:53PM
(#280802)
My plan, if I were CEO of Blockbuster, would be simple (if undignified): compete on price.
A few years ago I lived near a Blockbuster -- I had a card but I hardly ever used it, because with rentals going for something like $6.50 (compared to $9 in the cinema or maybe $10 to buy the DVD outright at Walmart) what was the point? Then I moved to a new place, where my local video shop was an independent shop where DVDs rented for $3 a night. At three bucks a rental, I found myself watching a lot more DVDs, and of course spending a lot more money than I had previously.
(Oh, and then I moved away from the cheap video store, so now I have Netflix.)
If Blockbuster cut its prices to $3 per movie per night, it would get a lot of people thinking "Wait, am I _really_ watching enough movies per month to make my Netflix subscription worthwhile?"
This would, of course, only be a stop-gap measure, while they work on getting a good online-delivery system going for the long term.
A few years ago I lived near a Blockbuster -- I had a card but I hardly ever used it, because with rentals going for something like $6.50 (compared to $9 in the cinema or maybe $10 to buy the DVD outright at Walmart) what was the point? Then I moved to a new place, where my local video shop was an independent shop where DVDs rented for $3 a night. At three bucks a rental, I found myself watching a lot more DVDs, and of course spending a lot more money than I had previously.
(Oh, and then I moved away from the cheap video store, so now I have Netflix.)
If Blockbuster cut its prices to $3 per movie per night, it would get a lot of people thinking "Wait, am I _really_ watching enough movies per month to make my Netflix subscription worthwhile?"
This would, of course, only be a stop-gap measure, while they work on getting a good online-delivery system going for the long term.