Online Movie Rentals - Blockbuster Vs. Netflix

Online movie rentals are quickly gaining in popularity. Netflix is the prototype for the entire industry and the dominant company in the U.S., closing out 2006 with over 6.3 million customers, and Blockbuster at 2.2 million.

The two companies offer similar concepts, which some individual differences that will make one or the other the obvious choice for you, but not necessary for the right choice for your co-worker or your sister-in-law.

Both Blockbuster Online and Netflix allow you to choose the plan you would like, in which you specify a combination of the number of movies you can have rented out (or in transit) at a time, and the number of movies which you can rent total over a one month period. By far the most popular are the unlimited monthly rental plans, where the customer can trade movies as quickly and often as possible. Netflix offers the cheapest plan - $4.99/month for one DVD at a time, limit two per month. Each company offers a 3-at-a-time unlimited plan for $17.99/month and a 4-at-a-time unlimited plan for $23.99/month.

Netflix enjoys the advantage of being the most common product, and one that your friends are most likely to use, if you want to delve into the friends ratings and recommendations section. If you know that you always love the same movies as your best friend, you can quickly and easily see what she liked or hated. Blockbuster has a similar feature, currently in beta. If you use one service and your best friend uses the other, you cannot compare movies as easily.

Netflix also has a slightly larger storehouse of movies. They advertise 75,000 titles, and Blockbuster 65,000. Obviously, your local movie rental shop does not have anywhere near that number of movies on hand, so you can enjoy a much larger selection online. Both services allow you to rate movies you have seen, and provide you with recommendations of other movies you may also enjoy based on your selections.

Blockbuster enjoys the advantage of also having a brick and mortar store. Therefore they have the flexibility to allow you to return movies in store or via mail. With Netflix you can only return movies via mail. If you return a movie in store to Blockbuster you have two advantages: 1) they scan it as returned right then, so that your next movie can ship immediately and 2) they give you a free in-store rental separate from your online account. Your free in-store rental does not count towards the limits on monthly or at-a-time rentals, but does need to be returned in store according to the standard rental due date. This gives you something new to watch while you wait to receive your next movie in the mail. My family uses Blockbuster for this reason. We have a nearby Blockbuster store and can easily stop by and pick up a movie, and it nearly doubles our monthly movies this way. Yes, we watch a lot of movies.

Blockbuster also ups the ante by providing each customer, no matter the plan, with one emailed coupon each month that will provide for a free DVD or game in-store rental. Since we also have an Microsoft xBox gaming system, we look forward to this coupon each month as a chance to try out a new game. Again, if you don't have a nearby store that if on your way for your other typical errands, the in-store returns and rentals won't be significant to you.

Both companies offer a free trial of their services, so you can try before you buy and see which works out well for you.