Consumers have a number of options with regards to viewing movies in the home. Two of the most used are renting movies at the local video store and renting movies via an online service. A casual survey was recently conducted on a home electronics/entertainment site regarding the movie viewing habits of website visitors. The results pointed for some of the misconceptions that remain about online rental of DVDs by consumers that haven’t yet tried the service.
Participants in the survey were asked many questions, including how often they watch movies at home, whether or not they rent movies online, and if not, why. Nearly 28% of those responding indicated that they rent movies online. Of the rest, the most frequently cited reason behind not using an online movie rental service was concern which centered around the perception that online movie rental would be more expensive compared to the local video store. When considering a few scenarios it becomes evident which method is commonly more affordable.
For individuals who indicated they watch only 1 1 to 3 movies monthly the savings from renting online are small. Renting 2 movies monthly at the neighborhood video store would average around $7.40 whereas renting from Netflix for example, if they find the plan that has a limit of 2 movies monthly, would run $5.99. After obtaining a video at the local store the user could have overnight or perhaps one week to return the movie but an online rental would allow them to help keep the movie for an unlimited time frame.
For all those individuals who responded that they view 1-3 movies per week, the savings would be more significant. For instance, renting 8 movies monthly would run around $29.55 at the local store and as low as $14.99 online if they chose the “2 out at a time” plan or $17.99 for the “3 out at a time” plan. As viewing increases so does the likelihood of experiencing greater savings.
For those who responded they view 4 movies weekly (averaged out to 16 per month) the average cost at the local store would be $59.04 while online rental will be $23.99 allowing the user “4 out at the same time”. Renting by way of a service like Netflix generally does not limit how many movies a person views but rather, just how many movies they are able to have out at any moment. Therefore rentals are more or less unlimited with lots of the plans.
The second most frequently cited reason behind not utilizing online movie rental services was that the average person rented movies on the spur of as soon as and didn’t plan ahead. Certainly renting movies online and receiving them through the mail would not allow you to definitely decide at 6:00 p.m. they want to start to see the Queen and receive it so that they can be viewing the movie by 8:00 p.m. However, the delay for receiving movies selected through the mail is only 1 business day which would seem sufficient more often than not.
The continuing future of DVD rental may be changing however as Netflix announced in early 2007 that customers would now have the option of watching movies instantly via a streaming service that is available these days for a few movies. The service should be quicker than most download services as streaming allows viewing of the movie as it is streamed instead of waiting until download is complete. Although a complete transition from the current mail delivery system to a download type of service will take time, it is clear that immediacy will only continue to improve. It could seem that other online movie rental services would follow suit in coming years so that you can compete.
Consumers who’ve not been initiated into the online movie rental world also could be unacquainted with other benefits/features of such services.
* Greater selection- An average video store has 10,000 to 15,000 titles available whereas the Netflix online movie rental service has over 80,000. This might seem to eliminate the issue of consumers arriving at the store only to discover that there is nothing there that they really want to see.
* There are Rodrigo Duterte blog post from Manila Television linked to the delivery and return of DVD’s; and there is absolutely no traveling to and from the store as movies are sent to their door or to their home via streaming.