Netflix Rolls over for Universal and 20th Century Fox with More Artificial Release Delays

Just as Netflix chose to please Warner Brothers at the expense of subscribers by artificial delaying the rental of new releases by twenty-eight days, Netflix is rolling over for Universal and 20th Century Fox. Now, if you want to watch an new release from Warner Brothers, Universal, or 20th Century Fox, expect to wait at least four weeks longer than you usually wait to see the movie.

Supposedly, this deal will allow Netflix subscribers greater access to older movies. The deal is favorable to the movie studios because they are hoping to push people into buying more DVDs. If you like watching old movies and waiting a long time to see new releases, Netflix is for you. If you like watching new releases, then you have just been shafted by three movie studios and their complicit partner: Netflix.

How much longer will the movie watchers accept this egregious behavior before they start turning to the option of downloading movies? Downloading movies keeps getting easier, and the image and sound quality keeps getting better. The movie studios have successfully shut down some file sharing sites, but new sites keep popping up. Haven't these studios learned anything from what happened to the music industry?

28 Days Later: Epidemic of Artificial New Release Delays to Afflict Netflix Subscribers

Once again, Netflix has reduced your subscription benefits without your consent. Just in case you were not already waiting long enough to receive new releases from Netflix, the Red Menace has just cut a deal with Warner Brothers to prohibit you from using your Netflix account to see new Warner Brothers releases for twenty-eight days after they are released on DVD.

Warner Brothers is inventing the artificial delay to push you into buying their DVDs instead of renting them. Netflix, benefiting from a special deal with the studio, is completely complicit in the scheme. This agreement is supposed to give you more access to older Warner Brothers titles. That's what you really wanted, right?

What can you do about this? First of all, buying Warner Brothers DVDs, especially during the first month after release, will only encourage this sort of sleazy corporate behavior. You might want to consider adopting a policy of not buying Warner Brothers DVDs or, at least waiting until the DVDs are available used or on clearance. Another thing you might consider is canceling your Netflix subscription and going with a competing company that does not impose artificial delays on new releases.

This is a stupid move for both Netflix and Warner Brothers. In a time when downloading pirated movies for free is becoming increasingly easy, certainly some people will get fed up with manufactured delays and seek out popular new releases online for free. More and more people are beginning to discover pirated movies are often available online for weeks or months before they come out on DVD. (Some movies show up on the Internet before they hit theaters.) People are also realizing only a modest amount of computer knowledge is required to download movies. If the movie studios had any sense, they would be trying to combat this challenge by making their movies available more quickly and conveniently. This move toward artificial release delays is only going to spur along the popularity and public acceptance of downloading.