FSU Student Life Cinema

There was a happy time when I could watch any movie instantly, and yet I could reserve a movie not on instant queue on DVD.  It was a time when all we had to do in order to transition back and forth is to click either “Watch Instantly” or “On DVD” tabs.

But then ever since Netflix begat Qwikster, and especially since they made a Berlin Wall-proportionate paywall between streaming and DVDs, the news only seemed to get worse.  One might say, “That’s not true, because I can watch Netflix on my Android phone now!” Well it doesn’t really matter at this point, because at this point, Netflix lost its red couch treatment.

For one, Netflix’s competition has now become much more disgusting:Hulu Plus.  For only $8 a month (same as the Netflix streaming-only plan), Hulu Plus gives you the latest and vintage TV shows plus free movies (especially from the Criterion Collection) - in HD, albeit at the expense of “limited-commercial reproduction.”  That seems rather feature-packed.

On the other side, Netflix gives you the latest movies thanks to the Starz Play program (which, if you clicked at the “worse” link, will be gone in February).  Oh look, I could stop writing this blog post right now and watch Tangled if I wanted.  Additionally, the user-interface is clean and intuitive, however unreliable its Microsoft Silverlight player can be (Hulu Plus runs on Flash).

But that only covers the streaming department.  So how does Netflix fare with DVDs? Well, Netflix’s DVD service, which will be called Qwikster, will be the same price as Streaming-Only ($8 a month), and delivery to mailbox will take around two days.  Netflix’s DVD collection is plentiful and diverse (the last movie I watched was City of God [A]), but there is one problem.  Its paper envelope and paper DV sleeve doesn’t really compel one to say, “Oh look honey! I finally got [Some romantic comedy] from Netflix!” Rather, one merely has to remove all the exclamation points.

So does that mean Redbox is the winner? Well it looks like the nightly DVD rental rate is about $2, but it also has video streaming and can even rent games (watch out, Gamefly). But then, there’s Redbox’s problem: A nightly rate and the fact that there’s “27,800 Redbox kiosks.”  In FSU, there’s one on the CVS at Tennessee St., but it’s just not the same as getting mailed.  And there’s the “F” word in Redbox: “Find,” meaning that the movie I could watch could be in a Redbox in Walmart, or some farther location.  

So thus far, it looks like Netflix’s latest lovechild has plenty of competition up ahead, a troubled pricing plan, plenty of publicity, and a “I’m sorry on YouTube” assault.  There’s Apple vs Google, and then there’s this: Netflix versus everyone else.  The red envelope is getting its own 300, and it looks like Reed Hastings and Andy Reditch gave Netflix this.

Edward Kang