[jrockway]

What's nice about mailing physical media is that the movie studios don't have much control. You can buy a widget and do whatever you want with it, including mailing it around.

You can't do this on the Internet, though, because computers are magical and Someone Could Copy It!1111!!

[araneae]

Right. It may be temporary, but how long it's temporary is something that could really hurt them. Hardly anything I want to watch on Netflix is On Demand, and I already hate Sundays.

[wmf]

What's nice about mailing physical media is that the movie studios don't have much control.

Have you noticed the Netflix and Redbox release windowing? First sale, what first sale?

[irons]

Netflix and Redbox cut good deals in exchange for those windows -- they pay less for the discs, and Netflix got expanded licensing for its streaming service. First sale rights aren't at issue. Just look at the Weinstein Company discs that announce "this disc for sale only" before the opening credits, which Netflix happily buys and rents out.

[funkdobiest]

you would think they would catch on that physical media is easily copyable where the instant downloads aren't so why not do instant for everything first then DVD.

[jrockway]

If someone knew the answer to this question, the movie industry wouldn't be driving itself out of business.

[roc]

They do. But they release it to Pay-Per-View and On Demand services for more money than they get from Netflix, then they get Netflix's money anyway.

They view Netflix as more of an analogue to the "TV Syndication" stage of a property's life. Until Netflix has a 'premium' club paying more for early access to new material (so that Netflix can pay more in streaming license fees), they'll continue to see it as such.