"The war is over, and Blu-Ray won," Netflix's vice president, Steve Swasey tells me, in response to Toshiba's recent decision to discontinue the production of HD-DVD hardware.
Netflix didn't drive the nail into the format's coffin, but its decision to drop support shortly after Warner's abandonment certainly didn't help matters. The fact that the world's largest online movie rental service pulled out right around the same time as retailers BestBuy and Wal-Mart was, in the end, more than the poor format could take.
Prior to its own announcement on February 11--one week before Toshiba's own resignation--Netflix was positioning itself as neutral, not buying into either side of the war. Of course we follow consumer adoption.
"We were agnostic all the way through until we saw the clear announcement in January," says Swasey. "Ninety-three percent of the players sold in the following weeks were Blu-Ray. That was pretty clear."
Prior to the big shift in fortunes, however, Swasey notes that renting amongst early adopters was pretty evenly split between the two camps--though that number was only a drop in the bucket up against the some 7.5 million people who use the service.
"Consumers sat on the sidelines. They did not want to invest in a new technology, especially since only 30 percent of America has high definition TVs. It's an expensive upgrade," he says.
The company didn't provide numbers, but Swasey notes that the amount of next-generation players that were purchased was somewhere in the ballpark of one million--around the same number of Nintendo Wiis that were picked up in the first week of the console's release.
So, how well was Netflix able to meet the minor demand for next-gen discs? We'd heard a few complaints here and there on the topic, but Swasey insists that the company hasn't fielded a huge number of complaints on the subject.
"There hasn't been an outcry," he explains. "Sometimes we can't meet the exact demands. We're like any company--we don't have unlimited resources, regrettably. Sometimes we don't have as many copies of a title as are being requested--especially new releases. There's a surge in demand for those."
In light of recent announcements, however, Blu-Ray devotees can expect an increased availability of their chosen format. "We have a certain amount allocated for acquiring discs, and when we're not requiring one, we can put that amount toward acquiring the other. We should be requiring more of the Blu-Ray titles."
HD-DVD owners, meanwhile, have the slight consolation of knowing that they will still be able to rent titles in their retired format until the current stock is completely worn out.
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February 25, 2008 8:00 PM
Netflix has obviously not read my complaints. All the latest blu-ray releases are subject to either Long or Very Long Wait time delays. I've been forced to go the local video store or use the cable company's On Demand video service to see the latest releases in HD. They better get their act together or they are going to start losing customers in droves.
February 25, 2008 8:40 PM
The wait time for blu-ray titles are very long. It took over 6 months to get the 28 weeks later.
February 25, 2008 10:26 PM
What are you guys talking about? I've been renting BD from Netflix for almost a year now, I think it was two times when Netflix didn't have something right away, and they had it on next turn-around.
February 26, 2008 1:44 AM
Comfirming I've had almost no problems with Blu-ray from Netflix. Almost always got things right away, and they were very clear on there site when something wasn't yet available. I suspect the people unhappy above are tied into getting popular releases immediately, although I've been able to get some of those as well without delay.
The much bigger problem is how few movies are out on blu-ray. Probably fewer than a third of what my broad taste desires.
February 26, 2008 12:28 PM
I'm not hallucinating. The following movies are listed in my queue with Long or Very Long Wait times and have been for weeks in some cases: Michael Clayton, No Reservations, The Assassination of Jesse James, The Brave One, Gone Baby Gone, We Own the Night, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, 3:10 to Yuma.
The only explanation that I can offer as to why some people don't experience delays is that their local distribution center is better stocked than mine. If that is the case, then Netflix should do a better job of allocating new releases among its centers.
February 26, 2008 1:39 PM
L. Stone: almost all of the movies that you have mentioned have only been available on Blu Ray for barely a month or less. The article blatantly admits that they have had some trouble stocking new releases. New releases for DVDs are sometimes hard to find in local video stores. I am sure that now there is a clear winner in the format war stock will continue to rise and your movies will come sooner.
February 27, 2008 1:25 PM
I've been with NetFlix for more than 3 years. It seems that their service was great for the first 2 years. Now even with normal dvd's I have to wait. From other postings on other sites, I believe that NetFlix gives new customers priority over long time subscribers. Don't even get me started on how long I have to wait for a Blu-ray disk. I'm seriously considering canceling my subscription. Maybe if I resubscribe, I'll get better service.