Warner Bros. and Netflix today announced that new DVD and blu-ray releases from the studio will be available to Netflix customers only after the 28-day window. So, finally Netflix accepted and yielded to the studio's demand. While this deal definitely helps Warner Bros. to sell more DVDs during the 28-day period, it is going to undermine Netflix customers' ability to have a satisfactory movie watching experience with new DVD releases. If Netflix follows the suit and inks similar deal with other movie studios, Netflix customers would have to either wait for 28 days to rent new DVDs or go buy them if they want to watch before that. New releases account for 30 percent of Netflix rentals. And, Netflix is reported to be getting huge discounts from Warner Bros. on existing DVD purchases.
Netflix says that they are going to use the savings from this deal and invest more in their streaming technology. Netflix's success depends on how much improvement they are going to make to their streaming service in terms of quality of the stream and availability of titles for streaming.
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