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Blockbuster Online review

Blockbuster Online review

Blockbuster breaks in to the online rental business.

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I recently checked out Blockbuster’s online rental service, which has become a competitor to Netflix. Initially I was skeptical as to Blockbuster’s ability to move in to a market that was obviously dominated by Netflix’s 6 million subscribers. Surprisingly enough, they have managed to attract 2.2 million users. Most of these new subscribers have joined in the last several months. What really surprised me about the service was the speed. I signed up for the service on a Thursday night and had my first three DVD’s (Justice League Unlimited: The Complete First Season) on Saturday afternoon. Returning the DVD’s is fairly standard and the return mailer comes included with the DVD. The real USP (unique selling point) is that you can return the films in to the retail locations, which means that the movie gets cleared out of your queue on that day. I cleared films out of my queue faster by dropping them off and that helped me whiz through 11 movies in about a month.

The Pros: Fast turnaround with the in store returns. Free in store DVD and Game rentals. The free rentals are in addition to the number of movies out-a-time allowed on the plan so you are actually getting more rentals.

The Cons: The site is slow. I accessed the site on two different connections and had a similar experience on both. There is a smaller selection of films than competing companies. There are no online game rentals.

One problem that I had with Blockbuster in the past was the selection of films in the retail locations. Another problem was their aversion to NC-17 titles and the edited versions of films that they carried. This is no longer an issue with the online service. The prices of the film plan are similar to Netflix, both allow you to have 3 films at a time for $17.99.

Bottom line is that it is a decent service. When I signed up there were no game rentals and two weeks later they added the in store game rentals.  Blockbuster seems interested in improving the service so we may see more improvements in the future.

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