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One thing that wasn't mentioned was that Netflix has a monstrously large catalogue at the time, and the user ratings and content recommendations made their offe

One thing that wasn't mentioned was that Netflix has a monstrously large catalogue at the time, and the user ratings and content recommendations made their offering extremely sticky. Switching to Blockbuster's competing service was a bit painful because you'd lose all your movie ratings, often stretching back years to the DVD-by-mail era. While Blockbuster could acquire brand new streaming subscribers by pricing their product similarly to Netflix, it was really tough for them to poach existing Netflix subscribers.

ben7799 4y ago
Most of us weren't Netflix customers yet at the time this was going on. Whatever the case I was an active in-store Blockbuster customer at the time their stuff started to launch and I never had an inkling they were doing anything online. It was only a couple years later I remember trying the Netflix DVDs in the mail service. I don't remember actually subscribing till I moved into my current house in 2010. When we moved in there was no video rental store in town. 2004 was a long time ago! I remember 100% I was still going to the neighborhood Blockbuster in 2004.
- gumby 4y ago
  > I was an active in-store Blockbuster customer at the time their stuff started to launch and I never had an inkling they were doing anything online. In a comment in this thread, jonfw mentioned that Blockbuster was a franchise business, which I hadn't known. That would explain why the physical shops wouldn't advertise an online alternative -- it would have been a direct competitor.
  - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
    This is explained the first time Blockbuster's streaming service is mentioned in the article, in the third paragraph, but perhaps could've been more explicit: > Blockbuster Online, an entity that was completely separate from Blockbuster’s retail business for reasons of both technology and culture: Blockbuster’s stores were not even connected to the Internet, and store managers and franchisees hated having an online service cannibalize their sales.

ben7799 4y ago

Most of us weren't Netflix customers yet at the time this was going on. Whatever the case I was an active in-store Blockbuster customer at the time their stuff started to launch and I never had an inkling they were doing anything online. It was only a couple years later I remember trying the Netflix DVDs in the mail service. I don't remember actually subscribing till I moved into my current house in 2010. When we moved in there was no video rental store in town. 2004 was a long time ago! I remember 100% I was still going to the neighborhood Blockbuster in 2004.

gumby 4y ago
> I was an active in-store Blockbuster customer at the time their stuff started to launch and I never had an inkling they were doing anything online. In a comment in this thread, jonfw mentioned that Blockbuster was a franchise business, which I hadn't known. That would explain why the physical shops wouldn't advertise an online alternative -- it would have been a direct competitor.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
  This is explained the first time Blockbuster's streaming service is mentioned in the article, in the third paragraph, but perhaps could've been more explicit: > Blockbuster Online, an entity that was completely separate from Blockbuster’s retail business for reasons of both technology and culture: Blockbuster’s stores were not even connected to the Internet, and store managers and franchisees hated having an online service cannibalize their sales.