Online DVD rentals allow a person to rent DVDs by mail. Generally, all interaction between the renter and the rental company takes place through the company's website. DVD (commonly Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... A British pillar box. ... A website (or Web site) is a collection of web pages, typically common to a particular domain name or subdomain on the World Wide Web on the Internet. ...

How it works

Most companies operate on the following model:

• The customer joins the rental service and creates a list of titles.
• DVDs from the list are mailed to the customer.
• The customer watches the DVDs and sends them back.

Most companies will let patrons keep the DVDs for as long as they want; customers are, however, limited to a set number of discs out at any one time. (This is similar to the way that a library may only allow users to sign out a fixed number of books at a time.) Once a disc is returned, another is sent out - except for pre-paid memberships. Some companies or plans may have a limit on the total number of DVDs rented in a month. Memberships are usually billed monthly, and includes postage both ways. Some companies also offer video game rentals. // Online video game rental companies, generally speaking, provide a subscription service model under which customers pay a monthly fee in exchange for video game rentals by mail. ...

The best-known company of this type is the American Netflix. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), established in 1998, is the largest online DVD rental service, offering flat rate rental-by-mail to customers in the United States. ...

Types of plans

Most companies provide variations on five basic types of membership plans:

"Limited", "Capped", "Monthly maximum" 

These plans have a limit on the number of discs customers may have out at any one time, and also a maximum total of discs that can be rented during each billing period (usually monthly). This provides a cost ceiling for the supplier, and these plans are usually cheaper than unlimited plans. Some plans allow for additional shipments at extra cost once the maximum has been reached. Usually no credit is given if usage is below the maximum, although plans that allow this sort of "carry-over" are not completely unknown[1].

"Package" 

Instead of each disc being sent and returned independently, a "package" plan sends a certain number of disks together at fixed intervals (often weekly), and one returns all the discs in a single package as well. A common scenario allows for two packages to be outstanding, and subsequent packages ship as a previous one is returned.

"Individual Rentals", "Pay-as-you-go" 

A plan of this type would allow individual rentals for a fixed fee (perhaps varying by type/age/popularity of the title), with no monthly fee. Since companies rely on the monthly fees of low-volume renters to make up for those whose shipping costs approach or exceed what they are paying, there is little incentive to offer such a plan, and the rental price would likely have to approach or exceed store costs. Still, it would be a useful alternative for occasional or periodic renters who want access to the huge selection of online companies or the advantages of mail rental, yet don't want the fixed monthly cost.

Marketplace summaries

This form of DVD rental is closely tied to the mode of delivery. The performance of the postal service in various countries can differ, and delivery times also depend in part on a country's geography. A relatively small, densely populated area such as Great Britain poses different delivery challenges to a large area such as the United States (where the major companies have developed a network of regional distribution centers). There are also country-specific implications of the DVD region coding system, and even studio distribution rights within regions. For these and other reasons online DVD rental companies tend to operate in a single country, and even should a company expand to multiple markets, local delivery infrastructure would be required in most cases, as cross-border shipping is impractical in all but specialty cases. Relative pricing levels may also vary depending on the market, the local wholesale cost of DVD product, etc. Following is a summary of the main English-speaking markets. DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for storing data, including movies with high video and sound quality. ...

United States

Netflix is the prototype for the entire industry and the dominant company in the U.S., closing out 2005 with over 4 million customers. Blockbuster Video claimed 1 million online customers in August 2005 and expects 2 million by March 2006. Walmart briefly entered the market as well, but withdrew and now has a cross-promotional agreement with Netflix. There are a number of smaller companies, some of which target specific niches - GameZnFlix also offers video game rentals as part of their subscription package, for instance, while content-edited ("Family friendly") companies offer films that have been modified in order to appeal to families with more restrictive tastes or values. There are also several online DVD rental companies that specialize in adult movies. Blockbuster video store This article is about the chain of video stores. ... Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ... Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), established in 1998, is the largest online DVD rental service, offering flat rate rental-by-mail to customers in the United States. ... GameZnFlix OTCBB: GZFX is an online DVD rental and online video game rental subscription service offering flat rate rental-by-mail to customers in the United States. ... A re-edited film is a film that has been edited from the original theatrical release. ...

Canada

The Canadian rental environment is less developed than in the U.S. - the major company (ZIP.ca) is far larger than any rival, but is an order of magnitude smaller than Netflix even taking population differences into account. Estimates put the number of Canadian subscribers at 50-60,000, with ZIP.ca having around 36,000. Netflix had announced plans to expand to Canada in 2005, but has put these on hold, while Blockbuster Video, which has stores in Canada, has not yet made known any intention to enter the Canadian online market. ZIP.ca is the largest online DVD rental company operating in Canada. ... Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), established in 1998, is the largest online DVD rental service, offering flat rate rental-by-mail to customers in the United States. ... Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), established in 1998, is the largest online DVD rental service, offering flat rate rental-by-mail to customers in the United States. ... Blockbuster video store This article is about the chain of video stores. ...

United Kingdom

Given the relatively small geographical area and high population density of the UK, online DVD rentals have some differences from in the U.S, as a single shipping facility can serve the entire country. There are also a bewildering number of companies, but many are actually separately branded versions of the dominant company, LoveFilm, which provide the website, fulfillment and support services. In most cases the partner brand is a company with access to a large existing customer base (supermarket chains, newspapers, media companies, etc.) which it can direct to its branded site. Each brand may have slight differences in price, quantity, website features or ancillary benefits, but the actual DVD service will be from the same source. LoveFilm is the trading name of Online Rental Limited, a British limited company which provides online DVD rentals in the UK. It operates the LoveFilm. ...

In April 2006 LoveFilm itself merged with its major rival Video Island, which had operated ScreenSelect and other brands[2], creating an operation with 300-400,000 subscribers and an estimated 60-70% share of the UK market[3][4]. Competitors include Blockbuster, Amazon.co.uk, and a number of small and medium-sized providers. Blockbuster Inc. ... Amazon. ...

Australia

There are several providers in Australia, the most prominent being BigPond Movies (owned by Telstra) and Quickflix. Information on the Quickflix site put it as #2 in the market, with a subscriber base of around 10,000. Based on this and other available estimates (BigPond at 60-70%) the Australian market would appear to be very roughly in the 40,000 subscriber range. ... Telstra Corporation (ASX: TLS, NZX: TLS, NYSE: TLS) (formed from Telecom Australia) is an Australian telecommunications company under private ownership, holding a dominant position in landline telephone services, large share of mobile phone services, domestic consumer (including dial-up access and Broadband internet broadband cable modem, satellite and ADSL services...

New Zealand

There are 3 online DVD rental companies in New Zealand, all offering flat-rate packages. The three companies, all located in Auckland, are DVD Unlimited, Fatso and Movieshack, . Both Movieshack and Fatso offer FastPost shipping to customers nationwide, while DVD Unlimited ceased to offer this in late 2005. Schematic map of Auckland. ... DVD Unlimited is an Online DVD rental service in New Zealand. ... This article lacks information on the importance of the subject matter. ... Movieshack was launched on June 28, 2004 and introduced the first large commercial online DVD rental system to New Zealand. ...

Movieshack was launched on June 28th, 2004 and introduced the first large commercial online DVD rental system to New Zealand, which was followed 2 weeks later by the launch of Fatso. Movieshack was launched on June 28, 2004 and introduced the first large commercial online DVD rental system to New Zealand. ...

All major companies offer a library of 14-15,000 titles, and have similar pricing packages. One report in early 2007 put the New Zealand market at around 15,000 subscribers, with DVD Unlimited at 40-50%, Fatso with 35-40% and Movieshack with the remainder[5].

India

There are several online DVD rental services in India, all running their own delivery systems and logistics. Unlike online DVD rental companies in other countries, online DVD Rental Services in India do not use the postal service as a means of delivery or exchange. India's first online DVD rental service Clixflix started in 2004, and was followed by several others like MovieMart.

References

en:Onlinevideothek