Bob and Harvey Weinstein have just inked a deal to give Blockbuster exclusive rights to rent its DVDs.
I suppose there's a business rationale to this, but it's a pretty big FU to consumers. I was going to compare it to a publisher only allowing Barnes and Noble to see its books, but it's worse than that, because the distribution models for DVD rentals have changed so much. Many people now -- me for instance -- subscribe to services that charge a monthly fee for movie rentals. So while I could find a Barnes and Noble if I wanted a particular book with no extra cost other than maybe a little time, renting a movie from Blockbuster, rather than Netflix, means paying extra to see a film that otherwise would have been covered under my existing agreement.
Beyond that, the convenience of Netflix means a movie has to be pretty extrordinary for me to seek it out elsewhere. Right now, my queue is maxed out at 500 films. If I watched two a week it would take me five years to get through them all. So I've got plenty on my entertainment plate already.
Weinstein says that among the movies covered by the deal will be Bobby, The Nanny Diaries and The Protector. All three of those are movies I'm not likely to see in the theater, but that would go right into my queue if possible, possibly fairly high up (will The Nanny Diaries show Scarlettboobies?). But none of them are so essential that I'm going to shlep to Blockbuster when I already have 500 other options just waiting to be automatically delivered to my house.
As far as I can see, all Weinstein is really doing is limiting the audience for its films.
