Friday, April 7, 2006
Blockbuster Tells Netflix to Shove It
Posted by Chris Gohlke in "NEWS" @ 05:00 PM
""We believe this lawsuit is an attempt by Netflix to stifle competition and, as a result, reduce consumer choice," said Shane Evangelist, senior vice president and general manager for Blockbuster Online, in a statement. “The timing of this lawsuit appears to confirm that Blockbuster Online has emerged as a real competitive force in the online rental industry. Apparently Netflix would prefer to take us on in the courts rather than facing us in the marketplace where the consumer is the judge.""
I'm not a big fan of these types of lawsuits. The idea of a queue for rentals seems fairly obvious to me in fact it is very similar to the idea of a waiting list for a popular book at the library. I think Blockbuster is right and Netflix will probably draw this out long enough to discourage others from entering the market. In the meantime, they probably hope that this will draw Blockbuster's focus away from what it really needs to be doing - leveraging their stores to give them an advantage over Netflix.
I'm not a big fan of these types of lawsuits. The idea of a queue for rentals seems fairly obvious to me in fact it is very similar to the idea of a waiting list for a popular book at the library. I think Blockbuster is right and Netflix will probably draw this out long enough to discourage others from entering the market. In the meantime, they probably hope that this will draw Blockbuster's focus away from what it really needs to be doing - leveraging their stores to give them an advantage over Netflix.
