In 2004 NetFlix recent class action suit because they started to throttling there customers. If you don’t know what throttling is it is slowing down how quickly the customer received new movies.

The suit seems to have brought that tactic out in the open and I presume they’ll stop doing it or make the practice explicit in their terms of service. With that out of the way, NetFlix has the largest selection (circa 65,000 titles), competitive pricing, and probably the most sophisticated website, refined over several years of operations.

Blockbuster came a little late in the game. Blockbuster Online updated program is very similar to Netflix, but the biggest difference is Blockbuster offers free in-store exchanges of there online rentals. The selection of movies was comparable (around 65,000 titles) and my DVDs arrived quickly. However, Blockbuster sweetens their online rental subscription with a free in-store movie rentals or game rental just for trying out there service, plus subscriber-only deals on in-store DVD purchases and most recently, free movie theatre tickets. Thus, for the same price as NetFlix you’ll receive in-store goodies from a Blockbuster Onlinesubscription which NetFlix can’t match. And in 2007, Blockbuster step up the benefits, now all Blockbuster online subscribers can get 3 for $20, instead of the normal 2 for $20. On there movies there selling.

This is getting pretty interesting to see how Netflix is going to respond to this. Blockbuster has come out pretty strong, so whatever Netflix next move is it better be pretty good. But right now Blockbuster once again has shown to be the mega giant in renting movies.
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