Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Blockbuster to raise online rental prices


Via Yahoo! News
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI - news) on Tuesday said it was raising subscription prices for its online service as it expands the business that competes with Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq:NFLX - news)

The monthly price for a plan that lets customers have three movies out will increase to $17.99 from $14.99 as of Aug, 19.
Delicious irony.

1 comment:

  1. What's the irony?

    They took a pretty big blow out of Netflix and it was pretty obvious that they managed to get the people who would jump ship to do so. There's nothing to be gained by keeping their price that low any longer. As matthom said, "I don't care if it was free. I'd still decline Blockbuster"... there are quite a few people who tend to boycott companies and no low price will win them over. Obviously Blockbuster has won over as many people as it could. I see their plan as a great opening move and I love the idea of competition on the market. It only means the consumer wins.

    Remember, before Blockbuster Netflix was $5 more expensive than it is now. So even if you used the great rate that Blockbuster had... you still benefited by it to the tune of $5 a month.

    I'll have to hurry and get in on the $14 plan while it's still around. I think it's pretty silly to go around holding personal grudges against major corps. They're all after the same thing. Your money. Especially in this case, Netflix and their practices are just as bad if not worse as anything that's ever been held to Blockbuster in my opinion. But in the end all that matters is how much comes out of my bank account. All things being equal, I'll probably go back to Netflix. But Blockbuster has shown an incredibly promising start for a newcomer to online rentals, I'll definately be watching what they do from here on out.

    Now I can just hope Amazon jumps into the fray! :D

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