Consumers have numerous options as it pertains to viewing movies at home. Two of typically the most popular are renting movies at the local video store and renting movies via an on line service. An informal survey was recently conducted on a house electronics/entertainment site concerning the movie viewing habits of website visitors. The outcomes pointed to some of the misconceptions that still exist about online rental of DVDs by consumers that have not even tried the service.
Participants in the survey were asked numerous questions, including how often they watch movies at home, whether they rent movies online, and if not, why. Nearly 28% of these responding indicated they rent movies online. Of the rest, the absolute 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 higher priced than the local video store. When looking at a few scenarios it becomes evident which method tends to be more affordable.
For folks who indicated they watch only 1 to 3 movies per month the savings from renting online are small. Renting 2 movies per month at the local video the khatri maza store would average around $7.40 whereas renting from Netflix for instance, should they chose the program that has a control of 2 movies per month, would run $5.99. After getting a video at the local store an individual would have overnight or maybe seven days to come back the movie but an on line rental will allow them to keep the movie for an unlimited period of time.
For anyone folks who responded they view 1-3 movies weekly, the savings would be more significant. For example, renting 8 movies per month would run around $29.55 at the local store and as low as $14.99 online should 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 folks who responded they view 4 movies weekly (averaged out to 16 per month) the common cost at the local store would be $59.04 while online rental would be $23.99 allowing an individual “4 out at a time” ;.Renting via a service like Netflix generally does not limit just how many movies an individual views but alternatively, just how many movies they could have out at any given time. Therefore rentals are pretty much unlimited with most of the plans.
The next most often cited reason behind not utilizing online movie rental services was that the person rented movies on the spur of the minute and did not plan ahead. Certainly renting movies online and receiving them through the mail would not allow someone to decide at 6:00 p.m. that they want to see The Queen and receive it so that they’ll 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 in many instances.
The continuing future of DVD rental might be changing however as Netflix announced in early 2007 that customers would now have the choice of watching movies instantly with a streaming service that is now available for some movies. The service must be quicker than most download services as streaming allows viewing of the movie since it is streamed as opposed to waiting until download is complete. Although the full transition from the present mail delivery system to a download type of service will need time, it is clear that immediacy will simply continue to improve. It would seem that other online movie rental services would follow suit in coming years to be able to compete.
