Netflix vs Blockbuster

Competition

A competition between Netflix and Blockbuster has been fierce for the past few years. The two companies are leaders in a rental movie industry and major rivals. Blockbuster has a longer tradition in the business. The Blocbuster has been around since 1985, while Netflix enters its 12th year of existance. However, as of now, Netflix has about 9.6 million online subscribers compared to Blockbuster's more than 3 million. Other online DVD rental companies include Intelliflix, GameZnFlix and Redbox. The latter two mostly target Asian markets. Walmart also tried to generate profits in this industry by was soon run out of business by Netflix. Nowadays Walmart has a promotional agreement with Netflix.

Online Service Overview

Both Netflix and Blockbuster Total Access are online movie rental services. This means that you can browse their databases and put your movies or favorite shows in your queue. A member is allowed to keep a DVD as long as he/she wants and there are no due dates or late fees. Once a movie had been seen it is placed in an envelope a sent back to one of the two movie rental companies. As soon as the movie is received at either company a next movie in the queue will be sent to a member. Both companies have many different plans to choose from. There are two possible options and they are limited and unlimited rentals. Netflix offers 8 plans under its unlimited DVD rental option. The prices range from $9.99 for 1 movie at a time to $47.99 for 8 movies. Blockbuster has 4 different plans between $9.99 and $23.99. As limited rentals Netflix offers 2 DVDs per month for $5.99 or 4 DVDs in a month period for $11.99. On the other hand, as a limited Blockbuster rental a member can get 2 DVDs for the same price as their rival’s or 4 DVDs for only $7.99. If a person is a Netflix member movies can even be watched from their website while a person is waiting to get next movies from a list. This advantage is only available to Netflix customers. On the other...