Perspective: What's the deal with Netflix?

So you're thinking about trying out online movie rentals, but you're just not quite sure? Let me offer you my perspective, in case that helps. (And by the way, there are other online movie rental services out there that may be just as good or perhaps even better than Netflix. I really have no specific experience with them, however, so my "Perspective" will focus exclusively on Netflix.)

I've been using Netflix for about 6 months now. Like most things, it has it's pros and cons (which I'll describe in more detail in just a moment). But what's interesting about Netflix, is that it will work very well for some people -- but not so well for others. It depends a lot on what type of movie watcher you are. Do you watch a lot of movies-- often less-known ones, and don't have easy access to a rental store? Netflix is probably for you. If you only watch an occasional movie-- usually in the "spur of the moment"-- then save your money and stick with your traditional brick and mortar rental store.

So how did I arrive at this conclusion? Well, let's start with some of the Netflix pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Netflix has a fabulous selection

They claim they to have over 40,000 titles -- and I'm inclined to believe them. I've yet to come across a (published) movie that they don't have. Blockbuster online claims to have a similar amount, so they might be a reasonable choice in this regard as well. But one thing is for sure -- your local rental store won't have 40,000 titles on the shelf.

2. Netflix offers a number of real conveniences

The convenience Netflix offers comes in a variety of forms:

• You don't have to go out to a store to rent the movie
• You don't have to worry about when it needs to go back -- it never does
• You can take as much time as you want browsing movies from home via the web

Definitely some advantages there. The whole system works on your time (with two caveats-- mail delivery and throttling -- that I'll talk about in the "Cons" section) which offers you a lot of freedom.

3. Delivery time isn't too bad for a Postal Service delivery

Yes, you do need to wait for the post office to deliver your movies (more about this in the "Cons") but Netflix has got a pretty good system for mitigating the wait time. Netflix has a number of distribution centers located around the country -- and they're smart enough to send you your movie from this one closest to your address. This helps keep the "wait time" to a minimum. In my particular case, I can usually get a movie from Netflix within two days.

It's worth noting that they will periodically ship you a movie from a different distribution center (and hence the wait is a little longer). There are a couple possible reasons for this (and I'm only speculating) -- but it could be a result of low inventory on some of the less popular titles (hence not all centers stock all titles). Likewise, it might be a way for them to balance their inventory -- that is, if your local distribution center has already sent out all of it's copies of a particular title -- Netflix can still send you one from a different center that does have a copy in stock -- and you consequently won't have to wait. That's a pretty neat trick -- especially when you compare it what happens at a traditional rental store.

4. The web site movie management offers some distinct advantages -- including recommendations and queuing

For one, it'll make recommendations to you based on the movies you've rented and the movies you rated. The recommendations aren't always perfect, but it's at least a "good start" if you're not sure what to rent.

The online queue system is nice too -- especially for forgetful people like myself. How many times have I said to myself "oh I love that movie, I got to remember to rent it" -- but when I get to the movie store, I can NEVER remember the title. With Netflix, if a movie pops into your head, you simply add it to your queue. Next time you're ready to get another movie -- no need to remember -- Netflix already knows you want to see it.

5. The price -- under some conditions -- isn't bad

This could be a "pro" or a "con", depending upon how many movies you generally watch. The going rate at Netflix is something like $17.99 a month for 3 movies out at a time. If you assume you're watching 3 a week -- that's roughly $1.30 per movie -- which is pretty good and beats any rental store I've ever used. However, it's obvious if you're not averaging 3 a week -- the per-movie price starts to creep up -- and it's not long before the deal isn't so good.

6. Netflix has some "little extras"

Nothing huge, but there are some little extras that are fun. For one thing, you can connect with other friends that are using Netflix through the GUI. That is, you can see what they've rented recently, what their favorite movies are, and which movies they couldn't stand. It's easy to send them a recommendation, and vice versa.

Other extras include:

• Check out Roger Ebert's review (or some other famous reviewers) of a movie before you rent it
• See how the Netflix community has rated the movie
• Watch a 30 second preview
• Put movies that aren't release yet in a "saved" queue -- which will automatically move to your regular queue as soon as its released

Cons:

1. No instant gratification

This one is probably obvious. If you had a tough day at work, and think to yourself "I'd love to go home and watch 'Animal House'" tonight -- you're out of luck. At best you're looking at a two day turn-around. This is the one big advantage a regular movie store membership has over Netflix.

2. There's room for improvement in the web interface

As you can see from the "pros" -- there's plenty of good things to say about the Netflix web interface. However, there is something about it that feels a little bit -- how shall I say -- "old school". As long as Netflix has been around, I would have expected something a little sexier. So if anyone from Netflix is reading this, here are some suggestions:

• Give me better queue management tools -- like being able to resort the queue by rating.
• Offer something fancier than just a "first in first out" queue. For example, how about a way I can set the system to make sure I always have one comedy, one drama, and one foreign film at all times?
• Offer some better browse capabilities. Browsing by genre is fine -- but there are a lot of other ways to cut and slice the data that would really be useful -- and offer a distinct competitive advantage over movie stores -- not to mention other online rental services.

3. Netflix doesn't offer any (ahem) adult choices

Ok, ok, ok. I understand that there are lots of issues here. You have to make sure your patrons are over 18. You have to make sure you don't damage the Netflix brand. You have to make sure your prepared for various legal issues. But I can't help but think that (if approached carefully) these concerns could be handled. The end result would be a lot more business -- and the customer would have a lot more choices.

4. THROTTLING!

At the present time, I must admit that I'm just speculating. But I have some emperical data that suggests Netflix will throttle you, if your rental rate is too high. In other words, if you watch all your movies the same day you get them -- and drop them back in the mail the next day -- it won't be long before you'll notice that the Netflix delivery time starts to go up. As a consequence, the total number of movies you can watch in any given period goes way down. The motivation here is fairly obvious -- if you are able to rent more than 20 or so movies a month -- Netflix is going to lose money on the deal. After all, they're paying all the shipping charges. So to protect against that, they just start taking their time if your rental rate is too high. (See this for an interesting utility to check for throttling for those of you that already have Netflix.)

Like I said, this is just the sense I get based on my rentals. (And by the way, if you take a week or two off from watching -- all of a sudden they're back up to impressive delivery speeds. Hmmmmm.) I plan on collecting some real data on this issue, and posting another article when all of the facts are in. Others may be doing this as well. This has been a fairly hot topic is some newsgroups I've read. Standby for more on this subject...

Conclusion:

So at the end of the day, what do really think? Well, overall I think Netflix has a very compelling product and (for the most part) offers a terrific service. Sure, they have their quirks-- and if you're not the type of person to watch movies on a fairly regular basis, then it might not be worth the money to you. But if you do watch movies pretty regularly... and if you like to check out some of the less mainstream movies from time to time, Netflix is for you. It's very convenient, and offers a number of cool extras that (at least in my eyes) outweighs the few downsides.

And don't forget -- the first month is free, so you don't have much to lose.

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