Arriving at the local movie rental store always used to be a bit of a gamble. There was the

possibility of being greeted with a row of empty cases in the ‘New Releases’ section, or there was the inevitable disappointment when someone already rented the store’s lone copy of ‘Office Space.’

The key to rental competition used to be all about location. Whichever store was closest was the one people generally went to. But with the advent of online commerce and the ability to find and download movies online, the movie store up the street is losing money fast.

Blockbuster, a movie rental chain that used to rely solely on in-store sales for profit, expanded its business to compete with Netflix, an online company that allows its customers to rent DVDs for a monthly fee from its 70,000 title selection and have them sent directly to their homes, with no deadlines or late fees.

Beginning last November, Blockbuster introduced its Total Access program, which allows customers to order DVDs online and have them sent to their homes for a monthly fee, but with the added feature of either returning the movies via mail or returning them to their local Blockbuster store.

‘Both of my sisters have Netflix, but I like Blockbuster’s program because when I’m at home I can return them to the store, and when I’m here I can just send them back through the mail,’ said Jaime Sasso, a freshman television, radio and film major. ‘They cost the same too, but I think Blockbuster is better.’

Another added bonus with the Total Access program is if customers return the movie in-store, they can rent a free movie at the store, which is subject to late fees, depending on the individual store, and still receive another via mail

‘I found out about the Blockbuster program over break,’ said Corey Kennedy, a freshman biology major. ‘I watch a lot of movies, and being able to send them back in the mail or bring them back to the store is a good feature.’

Blockbuster’s introduction of the Total Access program is undeniably a direct response to the overwhelming popularity of Netflix. It is hard to compete with the convenience and cheap cost of Netflix, and how it has suddenly taken over the movie rental industry.

‘In the DVD market today, it is all about low prices and convenience,’ said Raymond Wimer, a professor of retail management at the Whitman School of Management. ‘With the Internet creating so much competition, this type of response [from Blockbuster] is not surprising.’

In a retaliation of sorts, Netflix is now starting to make movies available online without download. Instead, the movie is streamed directly from the Netflix website, and there are no extra fees for this new service.

But there is a catch: when you watch movies online, Netflix does not measure how many movies you watch, but instead it measures by the hour. For instance, if you have the six-dollar per month plan, you can watch six hours worth of movies online, and not necessarily an entire movie. Instead you could just watch your favorite parts of certain films. But yes, rewinding counts.

While the concept of watching movies on your computer may sound good when you are sick in bed with nothing to do, it doesn’t exactly appeal to the usual social setting of movie watching.

‘I would rather take the time to get an actual DVD and watch it on a bigger television screen,’ Kennedy said. ‘I don’t want to sit and watch a movie in front of my computer.’

Netflix is especially easy for college-aged students, who may not have the transportation to rent movies, or the money to pay late fees.

Krysti Sabins, sophomore photojournalism major, said she subscribed to Netflix after the Movie Gallery in Marshall Square Mall closed.

‘There was really no other way for me to rent movies,’ she said.

Netflix offers five different monthly plans, the cheapest being $4.99 a month. While this may seem incredibly cheap and a good deal, this plan only allows the customer to receive one DVD at a time with a limit of two DVDs a month. The other plans allow an unlimited amount of rentals per month, up to four DVDs at a time. The customer creates a queue of movies they want to ‘rent,’ and after they send one back in the mail, they receive the next one from their list, usually within one business day.

‘Netflix has a lot more choices than a movie store,’ said Mallory McDermott, a sophomore economics major. ‘And it’s a lot more convenient because you don’t have to go and drive out to the store to rent the movie and then again to bring it back.’

Both programs offer new customers a free two-week trial to try to bring people into the online renting system. This system is also open for the usual free trial exploitation.

‘I got movies using the free trial and then cancelled it before [Netflix] could charge me money,’ said Anna Kuchinsky, a sophomore English and textual studies and newspaper journalism dual major. ‘Then I would use my roommate’s name and e-mail to get another free trial. It worked out pretty well.’

As of right now, Netflix’s online streaming program is limited to Windows computers only; a Mac version is in the making. Also, only about 1,000 titles are available for online viewing, while Netflix is still in negotiations with major movie studios.

Movies are available for download on iTunes, but they cost about the same as a regular DVD and the selection isn’t that large. Plus, viewers have to watch the film on the small iPod screen.

Vongo.com, owned by pay-per-view network Starz!, offers more 1,000 movies for download at a $10 fee per month. Downloads disappear from the users’ hard drive after a certain amount of time. The movies can be transferred to some portable players, but only to ones that support Windows Media Player. Vongo is not currently compatible with Macs.

‘Another problem with this industry is illegal downloading,’ Wimer said. ‘The online technology that these companies are trying to take advantage of may end up hurting them in the long run.’

Published on January 28, 2007 at 12:00 pm