Digital News Report – Netflix Inc. announced they have made agreements with both Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and with Universal Studios to delay the release of movies by 28 days after the release to Blu-ray and DVD are made available for retail purchase. Netflix has already made a similar arrangement with Warner Brothers in January.
The good news in the agreement with Universal Studios is that Netflix will be able to stream more of their films online. The streaming video service works through the internet and movies can be watched instantly on either a computer or a TV set.
Universal Studies first movie to have the delayed release with Netflix will be “It’s Complicated,” which will become available to Netflix renters 28 days after April 27th retail sale DVD and Blu-ray release date.
The agreement with 20th Century Fox Films are not as great with the movie company having the authority to determine the time frame for release of the rentals on both the physical and the online format rentals. Generally there is a 28 day delay for the release of the rental once the retail version was released on Blu-ray and DVD. The online releases are TV series of the movie studios.
The first movie to be delayed for release by 20th Century Fox is going to be AVATAR which will be 28 days after the April 22nd retail release date.
Is it that bad? Well it might be for those that have a difficult time waiting. This is a trend that movie studios have been putting on rental companies to further their sales of Blu-Ray and DVD sales. Chances are by waiting it will keep the fees lower for the Netflix subscribers.
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