Wal-Mart Turns Over DVD Rentals to Netflix 384
prostoalex writes "US retail giant Wal-Mart is turning its DVD rental business to Netflix. No word on how much money the deal is worth but Netflix will feature promotional Wal-Mart links for the 100K customers it gets from the retail chain."
Wal-mart censorship (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:4, Funny)
Whenever I visit such a store, I always stop by the DVD movie department and ask "can you help me find the pr0n section?"
And then I roll my eyes and look all frustrated when they tell me they don't sell anything in that category.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Funny)
Well that's your problem. They probably think you're looking for small, delicious crustacean.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
Hmmm...I wonder how a censored pr0n movie will be like
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Funny)
Short.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Funny)
Plumber comes in, offers to snake the pipes. Housewife smiles at him seductively...
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3)
Wal-mart has made a business decision that there is more money to be made by catering to the "genteel" (i.e. non-pr0n) market than there is to be lost from us^h^hyou perverted people. And you know what, they are probably right. There's a fairly small retail OTC market
Re:Please (Score:3, Insightful)
Your right, they don't define "traditional conservativism." But then, those currently in control of the Republican party and the Federal Government are not traditional conservatives either. The grandparent's post is accurate with respect to the post-Contract-for-America Republican party. You don't like it? Then sto
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Informative)
This is not unprecedented of course. Wal-Mart allows other people to provide services under contract rather than providing those services themselves in their own stores. Examples would be things like McDonalds, and the other Cafe-style things that are in the front of every Wal-Mart, and are not owned or run by them.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
Not that it makes any practical difference...
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Informative)
Movies are frequently edited in advance into formats "suitable" for general television audiences and other venues, such as in-flight presentation. I would hazard to guess that in many cases, packaging for retail toned-down titles would cost no more than that of man
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
Blockbuster does this to some degree, although it has changed its policies somewhat when the "unrated" version is the major release, or when a movie's popularity demands that either the better or at least both versions should be available.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
Which brings up an interesting dilemma. People will rent via Wal-Mart the full versions of movies. They enjoy the movie, and buy a copy from Wal-Mart. When they watch said movie, they discover that many of the scenes are missing! It never happened
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Informative)
IIRC, Walmart's response is "they can buy their DVD somewhere else if they don't like it." Many of us do just that, although it doesn't deter many regular walmart shoppers.
Generally, those that disagree with Walmart's DVD and CD practices are those of us who also have a long
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Insightful)
Then, if Wal-Mart says: no NC-17 movies, etc., on our branded service, fine. So long as the people who are interested in it can still get it under the NetFlix name, I don't care if Wal-Mart wants to filter their product.
change to NetFlix's site code... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
This is exactly what happens in the UK. One large company (Video Island) run white-label DVD rental services for Tesco [tescodvdrental.com] and MSN [msndvdrental.com], while maintaining a direct-to-consumer brand, ScreenSelect [screenselect.co.uk].
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Informative)
Then I started watching them... and noticed DUBBING over some swear words... WHAT THE HELL? Scenes were missing... the same ones that USA or TNT would cut out (In the Lawnmower man, the only GOOD parts were removed). Needless to say, I was SO
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't believe you. Producing an edited version and an unedited version of a DVD is an expensive proposition and not something a studio is going to do for DVDs that sell for ~$5. It would almost certainly be a money loser even at the volumes wally-world buys at.
I purchased lawnmower man from the same wal-mart dump bins. So, please post the timecode for an example of this editing and I will go and try to confirm it on my copy tonight.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Insightful)
Tell that to the hundreds of businesses, large and small, that Wal-Mart puts out of business by doing exactly that. They sell over $285 BILLION a year, and if you don't do everything that they want, then they will simply make a boat-load of money with another supplier.
Oh, you are the only person/entity that owns the movie/DVD rights? Ok, then, if you don't edit EVERYTHING we want in EVERYTHING we buy from you, you lose com
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Informative)
Airline versions (Score:3, Interesting)
My friend saw the movie "The Sweet Hereafter" on an airplane and they cut out the whole father/daughter incest storyline, understandable but kind of ruins a couple plot-points.
Who knows what other cuts are made on other films.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Insightful)
Mmm, mmm. Smells like defensism.
Wouldn't it be easy to just ask him what parts he remembers being removed, so you can watch it and see for yourself?
Who the hell would waste the time to look up timecodes to appease some random guy on slashdot?
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Informative)
When Job later is all twisted and Evil and he goes and makes the doctors wife go out and start shooting at the men in black, while they blow her to bits.... that part is removed as well.
kthx
Re:Blockbuster pulls this shit too (Score:3, Interesting)
Without her telling me what happened I would have just thought he movie was inconsistent. Maybe there is some info about the content chops in the DVD that I missed?
JOhn
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
Have fun with that one in court. If there's nothing indicating that it's the complete, uncut version, there's no fraud.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Insightful)
If that's censorship then I guess my local whole foods market is guilty too, because they don't carry Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch. All they carry is some crappy organic peanut butter puffs. The *bastards*.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:4, Interesting)
It's the same kind of editing that TV stations do to show a PG-13 or R rated movie during the day.
The fact that it isn't CLEARLY labelled as such, masquerading as the real thing, IS censorship.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Insightful)
So they *are* labelled then...
It's the same kind of editing that TV stations do to show a PG-13 or R rated movie during the day.
And this was not obvious to who?
The fact that it isn't CLEARLY labelled as such, masquerading as the real thing, IS censorship.
You define "censorship
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I'd mosey over to the next town, I s'pose. Course'n I might need an auto-mo-bile fer that.
Or I may shop online. Or by mail order. Or have a cityslicker cousin buy movies for me.
Inconvenience is not censorship.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Informative)
In short, yes. They are modified, surely (which probably makes them suck a lot), but Walmart is just a huge sales channel for content providers, who in this case are movie distributors.
If distributors own the rights to the content, and choose to modify the content to meet Walmart's policies, it's their choice.
I'm not surprised the choose to modify content. That way they can exploit Walmart's retail channels. For a lot of money. For the
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:5, Interesting)
My girlfriend works for a label manufacturer that prints labels for a well known motor oil company. They've had to re-design labels entirely, because the bottle that the company uses had changed shape. The exclusive reason is because Wal-Mart did not like the way the bottle handle was positioned when they were put on the shelf. So a multi-million dollar repackaging was set in order.
Any manufacturer of consumer products, or even services as this case seems to be, stands to lose a TON of revenue if Wal-Mart decides that they don't want to play ball with you anymore.
There's no doubt that Netflix would be persuaded to do just about anything that Wal-Mart requests of them.
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
If they (Score:2)
Also, I would say the if a company controlled enough of a market, they could enforce sensorship. not in this case, but I can see scenerios where this happens.
Historically sensorship only applied to governments, however now that corporations have gotten to the point where they run things, and control people who don't even wish to use them I would say they can sensor.
example:
Microsoft incorporated in
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:2)
Re:Wal-mart censorship (Score:3, Funny)
And there's the Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammo version, in which the phrase fuck you has been dubbed over with forget you and holy fucking shit has been replaced with oh my.
They're also much shorter. All the violent scenes and sexual content have been removed,
Blockbuster campaign (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Blockbuster campaign (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean all retail jobs blow monkey dick, but this one blew Kong. I've never set foot in any Blockbuster store since I left.
Re:Blockbuster campaign (Score:4, Funny)
The problem is that you need a new frame of reference. Try working in the agriculture or construction field and it won't take long before you wax nostalgic about the good ole days at Blockbuster.
Hey Blockbuster... (Score:5, Funny)
I am kind of surprised... (Score:2, Insightful)
Good turn of events.
Re:I am kind of surprised... (Score:2)
I mean, have you seen those commercials where the hip teenager explains how these new DVD thingys are just da BOMB?
-shudder-
Come on, these people have never even heard of Netflix. The geeks among them have AOL.
For everyone else, was there really any question who would win?
m-
Walmart was 2.5% the size of netflix (Score:2)
The nice thing for net flix is the cross marketing.
WalMart = Microsoft of retail (Score:2, Funny)
Re:WalMart = Microsoft of retail (Score:5, Insightful)
And apparently they were smart enough to realize that a DVD-by-mail service for US customers just can't be run out of China for cheaper.
Re:WalMart = Microsoft of retail (Score:2)
So yes, wal mart is shutting down their rental service entirely...they are giving their customer base to netflix for a promise of advertisement. Businesses do it all the time "we not only sell you our physical store which is worth 100k, but we are selling you client-base which is worth 1 million."
Mmmm, sweet irony... (Score:4, Interesting)
A Win For The Little Guys (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A Win For The Little Guys (Score:3, Insightful)
Competition (Score:5, Insightful)
In five years, only one will remain. Who will win? My money is still on Blockbuster, but the odds have definitely shifted.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Competition (Score:2)
Re:Competition (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems to me that markets, at least in terms of big nationwide brands, mostly tend toward duopolies with a few other minor players. They often are red vs. blue, as well-
Coke vs. Pepsi
Target vs. Wal-Mart
Costco vs. Sam's
Home Depot vs. Lowe's
Netflix vs. Blockbuster Petsmart vs. Petco
Nike vs. Reebok
Marlboro vs. Camel
Republicans vs. Democrats
Anyone else notice this? Can you think of any more?
Re:Competition (Score:3, Funny)
m-
Re:Competition (Score:3, Insightful)
Dunno why you say that. Yes, it is "one of those commodity items that becomes cheaper to run on a per-customer basis the more customers you have" but it is also a service that can vary in quality. You might prefer Netflix because it is cheaper or has a better website, while someone else may prefer ChristianFlix because it provides them with censored movies. Someone else might prefer IndieFlix because the website is bette
Re:Competition (Score:2)
Yeah, just like how there is only one Cola company, and Pepsi is completely bankrupt. And like how Amazon.com [amazon.com] is the ONLY place to buy [buy.com] books [bn.com] online.
Monoplies only happen if there is a measuable barrier-to-entry in the market, either technical or legal. Postal DVD rental doesn't have a barrier like that, so there will probably stay two companies (functionally interchangable with each other).
Re:Competition (Score:2)
Not exactly, because of the revenue-sharing contracts:
Vertical revenue-sharing contracts allow manufacturers and retailers, or rental companies, the ability to better manage their "coordination of inventory decisions where both firms separately maximize profits. Historically, the use of simple, linear pricing rules between manufacturers and retailers may lead to suboptimal supply of the
The stuff billionaires are made of (Score:5, Interesting)
Netflix should figure out a way to use Wal-Mart as a local cache. For the hottest releases, you don't have to wait for the thing to be delivered (or even downloaded and burned >-). You hand the Wal-Mart electronics guru your Netflix card, and they put your name in the computer.
There's got to be a way to make that work more cheaply than mailing each one.
Re:The stuff billionaires are made of (Score:2)
It would likely cost extra. You gotta pay for the shelf space, and the wage for the guy doing the scanning.
Re:The stuff billionaires are made of (Score:5, Funny)
guru?!?!
In which parallel dimension have you been shopping and how do I get there?
Re:The stuff billionaires are made of (Score:2)
>
>In which parallel dimension have you been
>shopping and how do I get there?
Yeah, right.
Recently, I had a bundle of CD blanks or something to buy, and took them to the electronics counter. The 18-year-old wunderkind behind the counter, next to the cash register, was talking to her boyfriend (or a prospect, anyway).
I asked to purchase the item. "I can't do that, you'll have to go up front", she said, and continued with her conversation about what someone went and then somebody else
Re:The stuff billionaires are made of (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Big story (Score:2, Funny)
Walmartization (Score:2, Interesting)
Vlasic Pickles was an unfortunate tragedy of the Wal-Mart Empire.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.htm l [fastcompany.com]
It's good to see them lose some ground either way.
WalMart Ads on Netflix = Optional! (Score:3, Interesting)
So far the ads haven't returned, even after closing the browser window and opening a new window.
I logged out, and logged back in, still no ads.
So those of us who are morally opposed to WalMart's business practices don't have to deal with their banner ads. One click makes it go away.
Great for me... (Score:2)
100K-1 (Score:5, Interesting)
Didn't work that way. Got transferred to Netflix's new account page with the wrong service option selected and everything else blank. Had the software worked properly, I would now be a Netflix customer but it didn't so I checked out Blockbuster's offer. So if anyone at Netflix is reading this, especially if you're the developer, your bug cost you a customer. Blockbuster looks to have a better deal than Netflix - something I probably wouldn't have noticed had your code worked properly.
It's a shame Walmart quit. When they entered the market, Netflix raised their monthly service fee, realized that wasn't the brightest thing to way to compete with the world's largest retailer and subsequently lowered their fees to match Walmart's. Both companies then proceeded to add a whole lot more titles to their mix - or at least claim they did. The overall effect of Walmart's entry into this field was to increase competition and improve the offerings. I frequently saw a 2 day turnaround from mailing a DVD to receiving its replacement. With Walmart's exit, I wouldn't be surprised to see a concurrent dimunition of service from the remaining players.
Re:100K-1 (Score:2)
Re:100K-1 (Score:4, Informative)
And yes, I am cancelling, at the end of the month.
WHAT?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
Someone tell Bill Quinn [amazon.com], author of How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and The World and What You Can Do About It [amazon.com]
No netflix for Puerto Rico (Score:2)
great... (Score:4, Informative)
Under the counter (Score:2)
Good - WalMart SUCKED as a rental service (Score:5, Informative)
I've belonged to 4 rental services, and this is the order I rank them:
customer service:
1) Greencine (usually a few hours for email reply during the day, some of the staff seem to remember you by name, and they also often show up in the discussion boards),
2) Netflix (known for throttling service sometimes (less often these days), and takes a couple days to answer emails)
3) WalMart
4) Blockbuster far behind. 3-4 days to answer emails, empty slots when I had a queue of hundreds for a couple days at a time and each of them was supposedly "available now" - and I live within 30 miles of the national headquarters and the main distribution center.
selection:
1&2) Netflix, Greencine. GC has a better anime selection for now, as well as more hard to find foreign titles. Netflix has much better availability on almost every title it actually stocks, and is edging up on the anime. But it's still not there with foreign titles, either. Best selection for most people, however.
3) Blockbuster had mostly the same titles you'd see in its stores. But as I said earlier, a lot of them weren't really available when they claimed they were.
4) WalMart basically had a subset of what Blockbuster did. They did keep the slots full, however.
speed:
1) Netflix! They win by a landslide, having dozens of distribution centers, so there's probably one near you. However, they have been known to throttle customers after the grace period, and some of those "shipping tomorrow" or "shipping in [two days]" messages look suspicious. They don't do shipping or receiving on Saturdays, unfortunately.
2) Blockbuster. They have a number of distribution centers, but they are slower to process returns and mailing out. Not to mention that I had empty slots for days, several times. I think I may have seen them ship/receive on Saturdays, though.
3) Greencine. Unfortunately, their one center in California is their Achille's heel, as it takes days for anyone outside the region to get DVDs or send them back. It usually takes 2-3 days for a disc to get to Dallas, and 4-5 days to get back to California. The postal service seems spotty in this regard. Note, they DEFINITELY work on Saturdays as well, which is very important in their case.
4) Walmart's center is in Arkansas. They're about as slow as Greencine. No, I don't think they work on Saturdays. Sometimes I wondered if they worked on Mondays and/or Fridays, either...
overall value:
Netflix is the best overall value for most people; I usually get 15 discs a month on the standard 3-out plan. I get 9 discs from Greencine on average with their 3-out plan, but I'm a foreign film fan who sometimes watches anime, so I'm keeping them around. I will say that last fall I dropped NF and kept GC, but GC had some customer service and shipping problems in January and February, so I restarted NF to supplement. Blockbuster shipped somewhere between Netflix's average and Greencine's, but their selection and customer service makes them not worth the trouble. Seriously. I canceled at the end of last year. And WalMart shipped about as many as GC, so they'd have been a nonstarter even if they weren't shutting down, now. I cancelled within 2 or 3 months, I think
In other news.... (Score:2, Troll)
Moreover, users of Netflix.com will experience audio tracks which simulate an atmosphere consisting of rednecks beating their children and people buying firearms at 1am.
Also, Netflix.com be the first website to smell weird.
Re:Maybe it's about the Patent netflix has? (Score:2, Informative)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/24/14582
Re:Maybe it's about the Patent netflix has? (Score:3, Informative)
"We're studying our options about what to do about the patent, but our primary strategy doesn't rely on patents. Our primary strategy is to have a service that works better than any other service -- that consumers not only like but rave about to their friends -- and that's what's propelling our growth"
From this link [smartmoney.com] to an interview with Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings.
Here a link [npr.org] to radio interview with him as well.
Re:As a Netflix customer, I have to say... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:As a Netflix customer, I have to say... (Score:2)
Re:As a Netflix customer, I have to say... (Score:2)
Re:Canceled (Score:3, Interesting)
I know I'm replying to flamebait, but don't you get it? YOU WON! WE WON! Wal-Mart didn't buy out the little guy. Instead, Wal-Mart decided they couldn't beat Netflix, and decided to cut their losses and make a deal while they could still pretend they didn't get their hind end handed to them.
P
Re:Canceled (Score:3, Insightful)
We won? Who's this we in "we won"? Do you own netflix or shares there of? Are you an employee?
Don't fool yourself. Netflix is only seen as small because they don't have the customer base yet. Given time and bad luck on the part of Blockbuster you'll see that Netflix is another corporation. Netflix isn't on a crusade, it's trying to make money and grow. That's the nature of all profitable business.
Not trying to be an ass about it
Re:oh no! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:oh no! (Score:2)
After: "Oh shit! Netflix doesn't deliver to Puerto Rico"
I feel that fate has run it's course... what sweet justice.
Re:It will all be over soon (Score:2)
Re:It will all be over soon (Score:2)
And we'll be able to watch it in our flying cars!
Re:It will all be over soon (Score:2)
All we need to do is equip every home in the US with a gigabit-class network connection and a computer that can handle the flow.
Simple, right?
(perhaps your definition of "soon" is different than mine?)
m-
Re:Summary has it backwards (Score:5, Insightful)
From what I read no one bought anyone. Netflix is going to get the old Wal-Mart customer base but NetFlix is going to offer a sales link to Wal-Mart. I don't see it as a buy and sell but rather allowing each company to focus on either rental or retail. If anything both sides stand to profit from this; NetFlix gets the customer base on rentals and Wal-Mart can focus on the retail DVD market while dumping what was probably a less than profitable side venture along with what is basically free advertising from NetFlix.
Re:Pleazzze tell me what i'm missing!?!? (Score:2)
Just yesterday I was adding a book to my Buy.com wishlist and on a search with the book title, the item I actually wanted was item 23 but a sponsor link (that appeared between entries 3 and 4) was a direct link to the book at amazon.com.