Netflix, which continues to hold a sizeable lead of online subscribers over rival Blockbuster for its system of renting standard DVD rentals through the mail, said its Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD rentals remain about equal among customers, though the next-gen disc business still represents a very small fraction of its overall DVD rental operations.
Such rental figures are noteworthy because they show a marked difference in comparison to sales numbers—which are dominated by Blu-ray by a roughly 2-to-1 margin. Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings told the San Jose Mercury News via High-Def Digest that when it comes to disc rentals, HD DVD holds its own against Blu-ray tightly enough that neither format can be singled out as a winner.
Hastings said Netflix attempts to carry all published titles from both next-gen formats and maintains an “agnostic” attitude when it comes to the disc war.
Netflix, the original innovator of combining online subscriber movie queues with U.S. mail delivery of DVDs without late fees, currently has about 6.7 million subscribers, compared to 3.7 million for Blockbuster—although in the second quarter of this year Blockbuster had signed up new subs at a higher rate than Netflix.
For more details on the rental war, see the Sept. 5 edition of TV Technology.
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