Warner has won the first battle against consumers. That’s right, Warner Bros is trying to force you to buy rather than rent. Warner will now supply Netflix with many older catalog movies for their streaming now service. In return Netflix won’t rent any new Warner titles until 28 days after they go on sale. At the time of this post this deal has already gone into effect.
Does Warner really think that because I have to wait to rent White Out that I am instead going to buy it? And does Netflix really believe that I needed Goonies so badly on their streaming service? This harkens back to the introduction of the one disc and two disc dvd release scheme pioneered by Warner. If you want any special features, you’ve got to pay for them.
This deal has been a long time coming from a company that continues to try and jack up prices, and now provide you with the inability to rent a title when it comes out for sale. Pushing the rental window back won’t save dvd sales. If anything it’s going to hurt them.
I, for one, will wait for the rental window to open, and close the door on sales. At least for Warner titles for now.