Netflix vs. Redbox

The movie rental industry is a living industry; there are constant changes with advances in technology, rights management, and the slow, but steady, move away from physical Media. Companies such as Netflix, Hulu, RedBox, and Blockbuster are being forced to look at new business models and try to keep up with these changes.

Netflix is first provider of delivered DVDs by mail that became common way and convenience for customer. Netflix offers DVDs to customers with quick delivery, which is mostly within one day (Willy Shih, Stephen Kaufman & David Spinola, 2007). In addition, customers utilize good recommendation system provided by Netflix (Scoot Merrill, 2009). Besides, customers are able to be given good customer service support (Katie Hafner, 2009).

Another reason Netflix is way better than Netflix, is that they do not have commercials/ads. People can sit around at home and binge watch their show without any interruptions. When a person is watching their favorite show and getting really into it, they do not have to be interrupted by a commercial for baby’s diapers. They do not have to wait two minutes of the same commercial playing over and over every commercial break.

While Redbox is one of our biggest competitors for viewers, it seems that the DVD rental market is on a downward trend. Therefore it is probably best to focus on companies that are intent on delivering video streaming. One recent player in the market is Sling TV, which is a subsidiary of Direct TV, and they have an offering of content that covers an area of entertainment that we have not been able to crack into (Katzmaier, 2015). They stream live cable programs such as AMC, TNT, TBS, Disney, HGTV, Cartoon Network, and ESPN to users for twenty dollars a month. While they are still subject to commercials and do not offer the ability to fast forward on certain channels, their product offering is one that differs enough from Netflix to cause

Redbox has not segmented its market by any demographic variable. With its kiosk located at routine place, it wishes to target the whole market, otherwise known as mass marketing.

The third issue affecting Netflix is the age of movies that they offer to their customers. Netflix cannot deliver the newest movie titles online because they are not offered through VOD for at least a month after they come out on DVD. This is a huge disadvantage to their customers that exclusively use Netflix’s online service. This is the only advantage that Blockbuster still has over Netflix, because if someone wants to see a movie the day that it comes out on video then

Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc. was once a highly successful and profitable brick and mortar home movie and video game rental store. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster had up to 60,000 employees and more than 9,000 stores. The idea behind Netflix came from an unsatisfied, embarrassed customer of Blockbuster, Mr. Reed Hastings, now CEO of Netflix, paid a $40 late fee because he returned the movie Apollo 13 six weeks later (Zarafshar, 2013). He began to contemplate ingeniously about a notion to change the movie-leasing pattern into a more pioneering industry. In 1997 Netflix was started as a DVD rental-by-mail business without subscriptions. In 1999, taking a stride additional in the direction of evolving the industry, Hastings began the subscription-based business mode based on renting DVDs by mail with plans reliant on the quantity of titles taken at a time. Netflix put forward 120,000 titles for limitless monthly DVD rental with free shipping no late and per title fees. Since that time Netflix has become one of the most popular subscription services in the world, and is now valued at over $28 billion and steadily increasing. What factors contributed to the success and failure of these two companies?

Redbox is in the movie rental business via self service kiosks. Redbox is wholly owned subsidiary of Coinstar Inc.

1. Netflix’s original marketing strategy offered several flat-rate monthly subscription options; in which, members could stream movies and shows via the Internet or have disks sent to their homes in a pre-paid and pre-addressed envelope. Free from the despair of due dates and late fees, members could keep, up to, eight movies at a time. Upon the return of a disk, Netflix would automatically mail out the next movie from the customer’s video queue. Members were able to change and update their queues as frequently as they liked. The sheer innovation of Netflix’s strategy encouraged several competitors to enter the market to compete directly,

Currently the competitive forces in the movie rental marketplace are not very strong. There are not very many players seeking to gain share in the market. The only competitors that come to mind when thinking of the movie rental marketplace are Netflix, Blockbuster and Red box. The evolution of technology has allowed many people to stream movies from online at no charge, for most and without any required subscription. Places like Blockbuster and Movie Stop are not as vivid as they have been in previous years due to the market shifting

The movie studios want customers to be able to get their movies and entertainment as easily as possible. The easier it is for people to acquire their products the more likely it is that they will. By offering many different options for customers to obtain movies and entertainment, Blockbuster has a strategic advantage over its competitors. The convenience that Blockbuster can offer in their ability to distribute the movie studios products is a definite advantage. Another advantage

Redbox is an easy way to rent and watch DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs and Video Games via automated kiosk or electronic device based streaming video. Kiosks are located at select fast food restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores. Each Redbox kiosk holds approximately 630 DVDs/Blu-ray Discs/Video Games. DVDs rent for $1.20 per day, Blu-ray discs at $1.50 per day

Redbox uses automated retail kiosk that provides customers with access to DVD and game rentals 24 hours a day, providing unmatched services in the movie rental industry.

The competitive forces in the movie rental industry are quite strong, as I will explain through the five forces model. There are a vast amount of substitutes for watching a movie. You can go to a play, sporting event, concert, out the lake/beach, go for a run, watch regular television, go shopping; I could go on and on. Also, torrenting or pirating movies is growing increasingly popular. Buyers have a strong presence in this industry mainly because they are picky about how much they will pay to rent or stream a movie. With the amount of substitutes and their pickiness, they make this

Netflix exhibits dominant economic characteristics in the online movie rental business. They enjoy strong market size and growth rate when compared to rivalry competition. The number of rivalries are increasing, and the market remains dominated by only a few sizeable rivalries like Blockbuster Video, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney Movies and Movielink’s Downloadable Movies. Netflix is determined to offer new and innovative technology to sustain their competitive advantage.