Blockbuster Cuts Online Fees Further

[Spurfan15]

Blockbuster has cut its online fees to $14.99/month, a cut of $2.50/month making it $3 cheaper than netflix per month and $2.37 cheaper than walmart . Blockbuster says if you sign up soon, the price is locked in until january 31, 2006, when likely, the price war will end and the prices will rise above or go near the 20 dollar barrier. Walmart's current price for the standard 3 at a time plan is 17.36, a whopping 13 cents lower than blockbusters old price . I suspect walmart, the master of undercutting prices, will rollback eyes their price to $14.86. So for those of you interested in doing online dvd rentals, theres a price war about, so now is probably the time to sign up, or wait until walmart sets the new low price.

[clandestino]

i bet wal mart beats it... i think netflix will be bought out soon too.

HEB is now renting dvds for $1 with the use of vending machines.

[txstang]

Its been $14.99 for a while now think it started in oct and they gave out 2 extra free rentals when they droped the price.

[Spurfan15]

Originally Posted by txstang

Its been $14.99 for a while now think it started in oct and they gave out 2 extra free rentals when they droped the price.

It was 17.49 for a while, they just cut it last week.

[txstang]

I have been paying 14.99 when I signed up in oct I used a code to get it at that price It was good for 6 months guess now it will stay at that price
this is my plan right now .

Current Plan Type: 3 at a time 6-month Special - $14.99 plus applicable tax
you will receive unlimited movies, up to 3 at one time plus two e-coupons/month for free in-store movie or game rentals.* At the end of the six months, your monthly membership will return to the rate offered to new members.

[austin_spurs_fan]

netflix still has a better selcetion. I use netflix because they have a large independent and forieng film selesction. Blockbuster and walmart are both "family" business that won't stock many good movies. Netflix and Tivo signed a huge deal together in october and netflixs stock recently split, they won't be bought out anytime soon. They have a niche market of customers that were dissatisfied with blockbuster/hollywood video and switched.

[Spurfan15]

Originally Posted by austin_spurs_fan

netflix still has a better selcetion. I use netflix because they have a large independent and forieng film selesction. Blockbuster and walmart are both "family" business that won't stock many good movies. Netflix and Tivo signed a huge deal together in october and netflixs stock recently split, they won't be bought out anytime soon. They have a niche market of customers that were dissatisfied with blockbuster/hollywood video and switched.

I hope they dont, but I'm not very confident about it. Thei stock did split back at about 36 dollars in February 04, but that was just 2:1, and since then it has lost 2/3 of its value. Since blockbuster and walmart have entered and fear of amazon entering has begun, Netflix dropped from 30 to 20 in july and then from 18 to 9-10 in october, and is now at about 12. Netflix cant handle the price war as well as blockbuster and walmart can. Hopefully they wont be taken over, but they may be.

[clandestino]

stock splits don't mean anything. and spursfan15 is right. netflix can't handle a price war. it was a very courageous and brilliant move to take on the big boys, but i have a feeling their time will be up soon... also, their sales doubled in 2004, but their profits dropped from 03 to 04..

[tigerdan]

The pity is that, as ASF said, both Blockbuster and Wal-Mart have a history of only stocking "family-friendly," sanitized material, as well as sacrificing diversity for zillions of copies of the same big hit. If your tastes are in any way deeper than romantic comedies and action flicks ( ie, if you enjoy classics, foreign cinema, exploitation flicks, erotica, documentaries, etc ) you'll be up the creek. I'll stick with Netflix, for the exhorbitant extra three dollars. Why patronize a business that won't give me what I want?