Netflix and Other Home-Video Vendors [was: DVD-by-Mail]

[CrimsonLine]

I think your link is incorrect. It led me repeatedly to a Japanese-language site. Here's the link I think you wanted:

 

Netflix has over 75,000 microgenres.

[Tyler]

I think your link is incorrect. It led me repeatedly to a Japanese-language site. Here's the link I think you wanted:

 

Netflix has over 75,000 microgenres.

 

Yeah, I must have copied the wrong link accidentally.

[Tyler]

HBO has a streaming agreement with Amazon Prime.

 

HBO has entered into a multiyear pact with Amazon.com that makes the e-commerce company’s Prime Instant Video the exclusive online-based subscription VOD service to offer past seasons of the premium cabler’s originals like “The Sopranos” and “The Wire.”

 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed; it covers only the U.S. Under the agreement, Amazon has exclusive SVOD rights for select HBO programming. That includes full seasons of “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under,” “The Wire,” “Big Love,” “Deadwood,” “Eastbound & Down,” “Family Tree,” “Enlightened,” “Treme,” early seasons of “Boardwalk Empire” and “True Blood,” as well as miniseries like “Band of Brothers” and “John Adams.”

[James Blake Ewing]

Glad to hear this. There are a lot of HBO shows/miniseries I'd love to go back and see. 

 

I already bought and watched THE WIRE, but it was worth the investment. 

[Mr. Arkadin]

As a member of Amazon Prime, that strikes me as very good news.

[Jason Panella]

As a member of Amazon Prime, that strikes me as very good news.

 

Agreed! There are a few older HBO shows I've been meaning to watch for a while. This just makes it easier.

 

I also think this is saying something about DVD sales of HBO's back catalog. 

[Thom Wade]

Netflix must be fuming.  HBO would not budge for them, they refused them, it did not even seem to be an issue of paying enough money...what changed with Amazon.

[James Blake Ewing]

They might not see Amazon as a direct competitor in terms of content. Netflix, on the other hand, with something like House of Cards seems to be making the kind of show HBO makes. Just a thought. 

[Jason Panella]

They might not see Amazon as a direct competitor in terms of content. Netflix, on the other hand, with something like House of Cards seems to be making the kind of show HBO makes. Just a thought. 

 

Good thought. As good as some of Amazon's new shows might be, they haven't attracted the sort of attention (critical or commercial) that Netflix's new content has received.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Jason Panella

[Mr. Arkadin]

Amazon is trying to produce original content, but hasn't had great success (there are rumblings that Amazon wants to snatch up Hannibal if NBC chooses not to renew it, which would give them an acclaimed show with a devoted fanbase).

Still, Amazon does not have a hold on the market like Netflix does, and it's in HBO's long-term interest for there to be some real competition among streaming content providers.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Ryan H.

[Rushmore]

What's great about Amazon Instant is that those of us who don't want to subscribe to another streaming service (I already have Netflix and Hulu Plus) can buy/rent individual items. Presumably this will still be possible with the HBO material, I hope.

[James Blake Ewing]

You can already buy a lot of these episodes on Amazon already, it's just that you'll be able to stream them for free with prime now. 

[Nathaniel]

It's really happening, my friends. Netflix is letting their DVD section go to the dogs, little by little. I awoke this morning to discover that at least four dozen titles in my queue have been assigned "Very Long Wait" status. My guess is that the company has ceased to replenish their DVD stock (especially when it comes to older, more obscure titles) or else have slowed their replacement system considerably. As more Netflix DVDs get lost, scratched, or stolen, more titles will be yanked from circulation, never to be reinstated.

 

I must greet this challenge with a renewed sense of purpose. I must retrench, re-prioritize. Only the rarest titles are to be consumed first. (The rest will wait to be harvested from the county libraries.) Absolute discipline is required on my part. No more lazy rentals or careless binges. In other words, the glutton must become the gastronome. 

[James Blake Ewing]

I feared this day would come. I've quit using Netflix disks since the beginning of the year. Relying on streaming (Hulu/Amazon/Netflix Instant), Redbox, the video rental store (still have one), and this thing called the public library. 

[Anders]

It's really happening, my friends. Netflix is letting their DVD section go to the dogs, little by little. I awoke this morning to discover that at least four dozen titles in my queue have been assigned "Very Long Wait" status. My guess is that the company has ceased to replenish their DVD stock (especially when it comes to older, more obscure titles) or else have slowed their replacement system considerably. As more Netflix DVDs get lost, scratched, or stolen, more titles will be yanked from circulation, never to be reinstated.

 

I must greet this challenge with a renewed sense of purpose. I must retrench, re-prioritize. Only the rarest titles are to be consumed first. (The rest will wait to be harvested from the county libraries.) Absolute discipline is required on my part. No more lazy rentals or careless binges. In other words, the glutton must become the gastronome. 

 

This happened in Canada with Zip.ca, and become enough of an inconvenience I had to let my account go. It just wasn't worth it. Very sad, since there was so much more available on DVD than there is on streaming.

[Thom Wade]

I got an e-mail...in two years, my rate will go up by a dollar. Jerks.

[Tyler]

The HBO shows are on Amazon now.

 

So. Many. Shows. I want to watch.

[James Blake Ewing]

I've already got a hefty list ahead of me.

 

Everyone who hasn't seen The Wire should start with that.

[Buckeye Jones]

So I started with "The Wire" and "John Adams".  Half hour into "The Wire", I know it's acclaimed and all, but does it rise above cop procedural with TV-MA cussing?

 

We're liking "John Adams" so far (the biography by McCullough was delightful) but I'm a little worried by it's apparently small scale due to budget and I'm not sure Paul Giamatti was the best casting choice for the role.  I can never quite get past the fact that I'm watching Giamatti and not Adams.

[Jason Panella]

 Half hour into "The Wire", I know it's acclaimed and all, but does it rise above cop procedural with TV-MA cussing?

 

Yes. I find it difficult to discuss The Wire in an episode-by-episode manner, so I don't  know if you'll get much from it unless you watch a number of episodes first. 

Edited May 28, 2014 by Jason Panella

[Mr. Arkadin]

So I started with "The Wire" and "John Adams". Half hour into "The Wire", I know it's acclaimed and all, but does it rise above cop procedural with TV-MA cussing?

Yes. Stick with it. You won't be sorry that you did.

[Tyler]

Yeah, The Wire is notoriously slow-starting. The pilot especially; it introduces a lot of characters at once, and doesn't give them all that much to do immediately. But it keeps getting better and better as the show progresses (except for parts the season five).

[Darren H]

Ryan, my advice for The Wire is to watch the first four or five episodes in as concentrated a dose as possible. Each season is shaped like a novel, so expect to be inundated by characters, plot points, and locations that won't mean a thing on first introduction. They will, I promise. The show borrows some of the trappings of cop procedurals but is something altogether different.

[James Blake Ewing]

It's a show built around seasons, not episodes. You at least need to get through season one before you get an idea of what the show is trying to do. Stick with it.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Ryan, my advice for The Wire is to watch the first four or five episodes in as concentrated a dose as possible. Each season is shaped like a novel, so expect to be inundated by characters, plot points, and locations that won't mean a thing on first introduction. They will, I promise. The show borrows some of the trappings of cop procedurals but is something altogether different.

I think you meant to direct this to Buckeye Jones, but I wholeheartedly stand by this advice.