AfterDawn: News

Amazon about to enter the DVD rental biz?

According to the founder and CEO of Netflix, the world's largest online DVD rental company, the online giant Amazon.com plans to enter to the online DVD rental business as well. "We started hearing rumors about two weeks ago, and we were able to confirm them," Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, said during the company's earnings call. Amazon.com denied to confirm the rumors about its upcoming DVD rental service.

In addition to the possible future threat from Amazon.com, Netflix is facing increasing pressure from its archrival Blockbuster and also from America's largest supermarket chain, Wal-Mart. To maintain its market-leading status, Netflix announced that it will cut its monthly charges from $21.99 to $17.99. Blockbuster responded immediately to Netflix's price cuts and decided to cut its monthly subscription charges from $19.99 to $17.49.



More information:

Reuters
Washington Post

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 16 Oct 2004 14:21

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• 8 comments

• ceja_11

  go netflix. :) I'm happy with their service so far.

  17.10.2004 18:31 #1

• pcrazy99

  I am very happy with netflix. They have a warehouse in my city and I get my dvds extra fast.

  18.10.2004 19:44 #2

• ceja_11

  WOW! , how fast, do you get them with in the day?

  18.10.2004 22:48 #3

• rJames

  do ya think this might encourage netflix to beef up its new release availability? I think netflix is superior to BB but blockbuster's ONLY edge is having new releases available the day they're first released.

  21.10.2004 05:07 #4

• pcrazy99

  I usually return a movie on a Monday morning and recieve my next rental by Wednesday. So they are pretty quick.

  21.10.2004 07:38 #5

• ceja_11

  yes i do to.

  21.10.2004 13:37 #6

• ceja_11

  when are the price cuts suppose to happen?

  22.10.2004 22:02 #7

• pcrazy99

  I got an e-mail from them yesterday and they said they were dropping the prices as of november 1st. I get the five movie package so it's being dropped down to 29.99

  25.10.2004 21:35 #8