NetFlix, Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, Cable, & now Amazon
By Kevin
The movie rental market is going to get quite crowded:
Netflix already has new competition in the form of Blockbuster Inc., the nation's largest movie rental retailer. Earlier this year, Netflix increased its monthly fees to $22 despite Blockbuster's entry into the market with an offer of $19.99 a month.Netflix reversed course on Thursday and said it would cut the fee to $18 a month in response to the possible arrival of Amazon. Blockbuster soon followed suit and said yesterday it would cut its monthly fee from $19.99 to $17.49....
But even as it defends against new competitors, Netflix is preparing to open a new front in the online movie rental business. Earlier this year, Netflix signed a deal that will allow it to deliver digital copies of movies over the Internet to TiVo Inc.'s 1.5 million subscribers.
Subscribers would be able to download the movie onto the TiVo digital recorder and replay it, just as they do with television programming that has been stored on the device's hard drive.
Cable and satellite companies are already delivering similar video-on-demand services.