The Online Video Rental Battle

I would love to hate Blockbuster because it's a huge corporation that has owned the video rental business since the beginning. No matter what town you are in you most likely have at least one Blockbuster around the corner. Which is and will remain, at least for a while, the largest service for video rentals in the world. Recently, the company has been theatend by a small online video rental service called Netflix. A website providing fast delivery of thousands of titles with no late fees.

Realizing that this was not just a fad, Blockbuster retaliated by launching a huge ad campaign boasting "NO MORE LATE FEES". This campaign succeeded in that it created an interest in Blockbuster again. However, it ultimately failed when customers read the fine print stating that if a video is over a week past it's due date that your credit card is charged for the purchase of the movie or game. Essentially, no late fees means you buy it. This actually angered customers and created more interest for Netflix.

Blockbuster changed their approach once more and decided if you can't beat them, join them. They literally copied the netflix business model and created "Blockbuster Online". With this service you pick from a larger library of movies that are shipped to your home with no late fees. They also added incentives that netflix could not offer. Free coupons that you could print and trade in at a store for a free rental, popcorn, or money off used movies. Netflix game back with a well-deserved suit against a patent they had for the process of renting movies online.

That brings me to Blockbuster's latest enticement. Starting last month, all online rentals can be returned at any Blockbuster store. As a reward for doing so, you get a free in-store rental. This is huge because no matter what rental site you are using you never know what you'll be in the mood for when you finally get that movie. This also means you should never have to go without a movie. Something no other service will even be able to copy. They also have added free game rentals to their free online coupons. This is a huge improvement and I am currently staying with Blockbuster for my movies rentals. However, I still am on the two game plan with Gamefly and am looking for the day when Blockbuster adds that too.

This is all very exciting, but I've already grown tired of waiting on mail for my entertainment and looking forward to the real future of digital downloads. Microsoft is on the cutting edge right now providing SD and HD movies and tv shows available through Xbox Live Marketplace. There are multiple reasons why it doesn't work yet, but it's very close to what I've always imagined.