DVD/Blu-Ray US Rental Market Collapsing (Netflix/Blockbuster)

[Beck38]

Many know (or should know) of the 'race to the bottom' of both these long standing rental outfits; first, the studios have been ratcheting up their rates (hey, just like broadcast stations with cable!), locking out huge swatches of their catalogs from rental, and a generalized push toward 'video on demand' which basically allows them to charge TWICE for the same content (the fees you pay to the 'provider', i.e. Netflix) and that which you pay to your ISP/provider. And this for 'hd quality' that in reality is a bit-rate and quality somewhere around SD/DVD levels.

Just in the last couple of weeks, I've noted that tons of titles, both on Netflis and Blockbuster, 'disappear' from my 'que' into the 'not available' or 'saved' sections, even though the titles appear to not have been affected by any 'agreements' that are out in the open. One has to wonder how many 'secret' agreements are in place.

A good way to check is to go to a site that lists releases in, say, the lsat year or so, and see how many don't appear in the catalog of either of Netflix or BB. A lot. Netflix is well known for dealing with 'truncated' discs, ('movie only' discs sans extras that are available on the actual commercial disc), particularly with Blu-ray.

Anyway, I'm sure that lots of folks simply don't see this happening. Or maybe they are, but I've seen no comments on it much of anywhere. Os here's mine.

[mjmacky]

Also going out of style... your grammar and spelling abilities. I'm not picking on you solely for the fun of it, I've seen you do better. Has passion or rage fuzzied your vision? I experience no internal conflict for simultaneously taking a shot at your writing and then using a made up word.

In any case, after watching these companies repeatedly learning how to integrate backward steps into their dances, I kind of gave up any semblance of hope for reasonable practices.

I look at it this way: piracy among those unwilling to arch the back their heads onto their ass cheeks to accept exorbitant costs by these distribution companies will always be favored. I tend to route for the underdog, and in this case that'd be the entertainment industry plagued with a combination of greed and learning disabilities. I tend to applaud their forward moving efforts, much like I would for Oleg getting a list of numbers on a piece of paper from a girl. I just no longer feel the need to remind him that, excluding the area code, there should be 7 digits.

On the other hand, I'll still cheer individuals and smaller production companies taking things into their own hands and doing distribution right (without DRM).

[RhuBarb]

Also going out of style... your grammar and spelling abilities.

oohhh, what are you: a 19th century novelist or summink?

[megabyteme]

$8 per month. Cheapest babysitter on the planet.*

Also, a significant number of those shows that "disappeared" were replaced with other shows. Yeah, some of the stuff my kids ask for on occasion, but we've found quite a bit of those shows available for free on Amazon Prime. Actually, I suspect there's more to product differentiation among Amazon/Netflix/etc. than there is secret dealings to screw over the consumer.

Cable companies and cost of broadband (which was largely given to the cable companies via the taxpayer) is another issue.

*

Spoiler: Show

...except yer mum.

[mjmacky]

Also going out of style... your grammar and spelling abilities.

oohhh, what are you: a 19th century novelist or summink?

You wouldn't understand the gap between us even if I was. I'm just better than you in every way; that should be easy to remember.

[IdolEyes787]

I had to Google summink and the Urban Dictionary said "Variant spelling of something, mostly used by chavs".
Now I have to Google chavs.

Hopefully at some point English will be involved so I will get the gist of what is being talked about.

$8 per month. Cheapest babysitter on the planet.*

At least we now know why your daughter tried to use the safety scissors to stab her friend.

[mjmacky]

I just assumed it tried to spell "something", and given the presented level of intellect, I expected illiteracy to be a foregone conclusion.