Who remembers getting those red envelopes in the mail, excited to get to watch the latest movie and loving the fact that you didn't have to ever go farther than your mailbox to do this?
[See's everyone raising their hands...]
Those were great but then Netflix let us get even more lazy and not have to go outside our house thanks to on-demand streaming. Now we can Netflix and chill whenever we want!
[That means what...?!?]
But I was reading this article today http://www.newsweek.com/2017/09/22/netflix-streaming-movies-classics-664512.html and I started to wonder about something...
Does Netflix still rent DVD's?
The answer:
Yes, yes they do.
https://qz.com/877829/netflix-nflx-hasnt-forgotten-about-its-4-3-million-dvd-subscribers-its-giving-them-a-new-app/
Over 4 million people still rent DVD's by mail. That's a lot of people.
So the two articles combined got me to start thinking about something I hate; Amazon's Prime streaming service.
It sucks. And that thought led me to another.
If Netflix isn't pushing it's DVD service and the quality of it's streaming service is starting to be questioned, especially by film lovers, then maybe there is away for Amazon to improve its offering and take some market share away from Netflix.
Amazon should start running a DVD rental by mail service for Prime customers.
To understand why this is so perfect for Amazon you need to understand the, now famous, concept of "the long tail".
Basically Amazon's business model is that they focus on selling a small amount of EVERYTHING. Yes they are affected by the dreaded 80/20 principal just as much as every company but it is in their DNA to try and stock everything on earth.
They are nicknamed "The Everything Store" for a reason.
So having a catalog of obscure DVD's fits them like the proverbial glove.
The basic idea here is that Amazon can shift some of the money they are wasting on having a massive selection of crappy movies to stream and redeploy those funds to create a massive catalog of good DVD's to rent.
They start by stockpiling a lot of the hard to find stuff that Netflix does not stream and market this to film lovers, maybe even at an extra cost of $5 a month or something. Use those people to build a base and then start bringing in more current movies to appeal to a wider audience.
Then drop the extra $5 and make it part of Prime.
Market it well and start taking from Netflix's existing DVD only clients while also bringing on new members.
Since Amazon has a crappy streaming service anyways the value here is great. People will be OK waiting a couple of days to see the latest hit movie at a cost of zero rather than paying extra for Netflix (who may not always have it) or going to Redbox and having to leave the house.
So Amazon would then have a movie catalog that breaks down like this:
Crappy B movies - On-Demand Streaming
Classic films - DVD Rental
Amazon Originals - Streaming & DVD Rental
New hit movies - DVD Rental (maybe the occasional Streaming at least for a limited time)
If this works out well Amazon could even consider buying Redbox and locking up the remaining DVD rental market. Plus they have a ready made place to sell the DVD's of last years hit movie that they don't need to keep for rental demand anymore.
Would this actually work? Well I know I would be a customer.
PS - Hey Bezos, this idea is yours for free but I would love to get access to it (and Prime in general) free for life. I think that would be totally fair. Also, you're welcome.
