Note: This comparison was written in 2004, and could quite possibly be irrelevant now.

Part 2: Further Developments

The review I wrote comparing Blockbuster Online with Netflix has gotten some genuine attention! I got a standard email from Blockbuster on Sept. 14, asking me for some feedback about why I dropped out. One of the questions they asked was what they could do to improve, or something along those lines. I responded with, "If you really want to know, see my review" and gave them a link to part one of this little discourse. I figured it would end there. Surprisingly, it did not. I got an email from the Blockbuster Online webmaster the next day, thanking me for my comments and offering and extra discount for my trouble. You know I love that. Hang on, though, there's more news that might get someone besides me pumped.

The guy also told me that Blockbuster is implementing a lot of the changes I mentioned within the next year. (No, no ego trip here.. I'm sure they had already thought of it.) The biggest one, in my opinion at least, is the ability to take movies back to the Blockbuster stores, get them buzzed, and it registers in your online queue. That may not mean a lot to some folks, but for movie junkies like yours truly, cutting the delivery time in half and getting an extra 4 or 5 movies a month is a reason for rejoicing. Looks like I'll be checking out Blockbuster again in a year.

'Fraid the story doesn't end there, though. MSNBC reported on September 13 that Netflix is taking a new step too. A new partnership with Tivo will take renting movies to a whole new level. Their theory is to equip Tivo with an on-demand kind of thingie where you download the movies you want straight to your house. Given, it will probably still take multiple hours to get stuff like that, but that's still less than the 2 days I've putting between my movie sessions right now.

Movie junkies, unite! It's gonna be an exciting year to watch as these two powerhouses battle it out, though they're kind of going seperate ways right now. Netflix will have to overcome a price war they're already losing, especially if using Tivo requires dual memberships. Tivo's been hurt a bit already, with some cable companies fighting back by offering the same equipment they use for free. Blockbuster will lose points due to the walking to the mailbox/ driving to the store factor, but they're sure to make those points back up in price with tightwads like me.

To each his own. A buddy of mine did the same trial experiment that I did in part one, and he chose Blockbuster. He's certainly not as feverish as I am when it comes to movie watching, so I guess there's a person type being hashed out for each of the services. Viva la movies!

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