Blockbuster vs. Netflix

[dish76]

I'm a recent Dish Network employee that sought employment because of my past experience as a Dish customer. I was very excited to learn that Dish had acquired Blockbuster. I dropped Netflix and started my initial 3 month subscription with Blockbuster and realized that Blockbuster does not offer the free online movie streaming that Netflix offers....very disappointed. While Netflix is a few dollars cheaper than Blockbuster, I felt that Blockbuster was a better deal given that BluRay and video games were included in the monthly service fee. Once I discovered that Blockbuster offers online streaming of movies at a "rental fee" of around $1.99 as opposed to Netflix's being free (granted they do not offer recently released productions) I quickly understood why Netflix has dominated this niche.

I am a loyal Dish customer and employee, however, if Dish/Blockbuster does not announce a change in the way Blockbuster offers online streaming I will be switching back to Netflix after my three free months are up. I love being able to turn on my PS3 or PC and instantly stream Sesame Street, Dinosaur Train and numerous other PBS shows for my son after he finishes his studies. I very much want to see Blockbuster and Dish succeed but I can't help but feel that this is the one aspect that will keep Netflix on top. I will gladly pay a little more than what Netflix offers if Blockbuster includes online streaming with their monthly service fee.

 

[SaltiDawg]

I'm a recent Dish Network employee that sought employment because of my past experience as a Dish customer. I was very excited to learn that Dish had acquired Blockbuster. I dropped Netflix and started my initial 3 month subscription with Blockbuster and realized that Blockbuster does not offer the free online movie streaming that Netflix offers....very disappointed. ...

Not sure what you're after here, but it's obvious that you didn't do your homework. It's certainly not clear what Mr. Ergan is going to do with Blockbuster, but you signed up for a program that contributed to Blockbuster going bankrupt!

Go figure. lol

 

[dish76]

I'm not after anything other than a discussion. Please, explain what you meant by "you signed up for a program that contributed to Blockbuster going bankrupt!" Are you referring to my previous subscription to Netflix?

 

[gdarwin]

Netflix is not free after the initial "free period"...

 

[dish76]

Let's go fellow Squid....you were quick to reply to my initial post but now you're slow to respond. I can only imagine that given you are a Submariner that you are waiting until next ELF transmission tomorrow.

 

[dish76]

Please, read the entire original post. I never said that Netflix was anything other than free. What I said was...."[if] Blockbuster does not announce a change in the way Blockbuster offers online streaming I will be switching back to Netflix after my three free months [of Blockbuster's promotional subscription] are up." Original context meaning that after my intitial three free months of Blockbuster I will be switching back to Netflix and will gladly pay the Netflix monthly service fee.

 

[R0ss]

Netflix is not free after the initial "free period"...

True. However if u reread the OP's original post he was revering to Blockbusters additional charge for streamed movies vs Netflix includes streaming in the subscription fee.

Ross

Sent from my DROIDX using SatelliteGuys

 

[daleeper]

I'm a recent Dish Network employee that sought employment because of my past experience as a Dish customer. I was very excited to learn that Dish had acquired Blockbuster. I dropped Netflix and started my initial 3 month subscription with Blockbuster and realized that Blockbuster does not offer the free online movie streaming that Netflix offers....very disappointed. While Netflix is a few dollars cheaper than Blockbuster, I felt that Blockbuster was a better deal given that BluRay and video games were included in the monthly service fee. Once I discovered that Blockbuster offers online streaming of movies at a "rental fee" of around $1.99 as opposed to Netflix's being free (granted they do not offer recently released productions) I quickly understood why Netflix has dominated this niche.

I am a loyal Dish customer and employee, however, if Dish/Blockbuster does not announce a change in the way Blockbuster offers online streaming I will be switching back to Netflix after my three free months are up. I love being able to turn on my PS3 or PC and instantly stream Sesame Street, Dinosaur Train and numerous other PBS shows for my son after he finishes his studies. I very much want to see Blockbuster and Dish succeed but I can't help but feel that this is the one aspect that will keep Netflix on top. I will gladly pay a little more than what Netflix offers if Blockbuster includes online streaming with their monthly service fee.

I'm not sure what you are wanting here either, as it is apparent you did not do your homework on what services were included in Blockbuster when you signed up. If you assume that every competing company will offer the exact same services then we can't help you there. It appears that they are targeting a different group of people, those who would value bluray over streaming media. I'm thinking that is going to be a losing bet, but we'll see how the market plays out.

We don't have enough bandwidth to get hd quality streaming media, yet the girls are satisfied with watching it at sd, with some buffer stalls. I can't stand watching it, kind of like mp3 instead of wav. Evidently most folks don't care about the quality of audio/video, they just want content.

 

[hemway]

I was a Blockbuster by mail customer for years and only switched back to Netflix because the Blockbuster service got really bad after they went into bankruptcy. I live in the Phoenix area where both Netflix and Blockbuster have/had distribution center.

We were originally with Netflix (before they had streaming), but as someone who watches a video the same night we got it and then promptly returned it we would always get new movies the day they released, watch them, then return them which allowed us to get the next movie in our queue. Because Netflix loses money if a subscriber gets too many DVD's a month, they began throttling us. When that happened we would get one new release a week and end up waiting weeks for other DVD's in the queue.

We gave Blockbuster a try and they were always prompt in shipping new titles. Had them 3 years without a problem until they went into bankruptcy. At that point service started to suck so we went back to Netflix. The advantage with Blockbuster when service was good was you didn't have to wait 26 days for new releases like you do most of the time with Netflix.

As for the streaming video, it's great if you watch a bunch of old movies. I like some of the TV shows on Showtime and HBO but most of them are on DVD only. Did I use the streaming system, yes, but only a little because we're more of a new movie viewer and don't watch much of the old stuff. If you want Netflix for the streaming, please note that it takes months, if not years for movies to be added to the service.

If Dish gets Blockbusters service back to the way it was and gets their distribution system backup to the way it was, I'd go back to Blockbuster in a heartbeat so I can get the new releases on the day they get released instead of waiting a month.

 

[yaz96]

Netflix has and is, kicking Blockbusters ass, and will continue to do so until Blockbuster is gone.

 

[David Taylor]

Netflix has and is, kicking Blockbusters ass, and will continue to do so until Blockbuster is gone.

Which really begs the question: Why the @#$*% would Charlie buy a turd like Blockbuster?

 

[SaltiDawg]

Netflix has and is, kicking Blockbusters ass, and will continue to do so until Blockbuster is gone.

I suspect that now that Dish has acquired Blockbuster that Blockbuster will change direction rather then be "gone."

 

[yaz96]

I suspect that now that Dish has acquired Blockbuster that Blockbuster will change direction rather then be "gone."

I guess I should have said "gone, as we know it today". Obviously there is money in the name, and some of its entities, licenses, etc.

 

[radiator65]

Our Movie Gallery closed 6 months ago. Our BlockBuster is currently having it's going out of business sell. All that is left in our town is Red-box or a Netflix subscription. At one time we had 4 video rental places in town.

 

[Derwin0]

Which really begs the question: Why the @#$*% would Charlie buy a turd like Blockbuster?

Probably to bring Blockbuster's existing streaming contracts into DishOnline.

 

[Yespage]

Probably to bring Blockbuster's existing streaming contracts into DishOnline.

Yeah, that seems to be hard for some people to understand. Dish obtains the rights that Blockbuster had received from various distributors.

 

[Dirtydan]

Squid, LOL

 

[mainstream]

I'm trying BB free and its great! If they can use Dish to secure streaming contracts it will grow subscribers. They just need to do it fast before to many other players join the $10 a month all you can eat party

 

[CK SatGuy]

This is interesting

From The Hollywood Reporter:
Dish Network Trying to Lure Away Disaffected Netflix Users
6:40 PM 6/21/2011 by Paul Bond
In a tweet, the satellite TV provider lists movie titles that are suddenly unavailable for streaming at Netflix due to a contractual issue between Starz and Sony.
Dish Network is hoping that Netflix losing the ability to stream Sony movies through its Starz relationship will be Dish’s gain. Dish, therefore, tweeted to its 15,000 Twitter followers the message Tuesday: “Watch Salt, Social Network, Grown Ups, Easy A, The Other Guys or Karate Kid instantly on www.dishonline.com You can’t do that on Netflix!” Netflix disclosed Friday that Starz, a unit of Liberty Starz Group, told Netflix to yank Sony films from its streaming service because an undisclosed subscriber threshold at Netflix had been reached. “This is the result of a temporary contract issue between Sony and Starz,” Netflix vp content Pauline Fischer wrote in a blog post Friday. She didn’t estimate how long the ban on streaming Sony movies would last. Meanwhile, several analysts quickly weighed in on what the decision means to Netflix and Liberty, the latest being Thomas Eagan of Collins Stewart, who reiterated his “buy” recommendation for shares of Liberty. Wrote Eagan on Tuesday: “It would seem that there are two alternatives to returning Sony titles back to Netflix: 1) reduce the number of unauthenticated Netflix subscribers (meaning Netflix subscribers without a PayTV Starz subscription); or 2) negotiate a higher Starz fee to Sony. We expect that either option is beneficial to Liberty Starz.”
Dish Network Trying to Lure Away Disaffected Netflix Users - The Hollywood Reporter