Netflix Agrees to 28-Day Window for Warner Bros. Releases

BURBANK: Netflix’s new deal with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment puts a 28-day delay on new releases being made available to the online DVD rental outfit’s subscribers.

Companies like Netflix and DVD kiosk operator Redbox have come under pressure from the studios amid reductions in revenues from the sale of DVDs. The 28-day window is intended to help Warner Bros. maximize the sales potential of their releases—75 percent of sell-through occurs in the first four weeks, the studio says—and maximize VOD usage. Netflix, meanwhile, says it will benefit from reduced product costs and an increase in available DVD units for its subscribers. The new agreement with the studio also includes a renewal and expanded license for Netflix subscribers to stream Warner Bros. content directly from the site.

“These new agreements build upon the strong relationship we have had with Netflix for nearly ten years,” said Ron Sanders, the president of Warner Home Video. “The 28-day window allows us to continue making our most popular films available to Netflix subscribers while supporting our sell-through product.”

“We’ve been discussing new approaches with Warner Bros. for some time now and believe we’ve come up with a creative solution that is a ‘win-win’ all around,” said Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer for Netflix. “We’re able to help an important business partner meet its objectives while improving service levels for our members by acquiring substantially more units than in the past after a relatively short sell-through window. At the same time, we’re able to extend the range of choices available to be streamed to our members.”

Netflix has also announced a slate of agreements with consumer-electronics manufacturers that will bring its streaming service directly to television sets. Funai—which distributes the Philips, Magnavox, Sylvania and Emerson brands in the U.S.—Panasonic, Sanyo, Sharp and Toshiba will introduce Blu-ray disc players or digital televisions that will instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix. The company already has similar tie-ups with the likes of Best Buy’s Insignia brand, LG Electronics, Samsung, Xbox 360 and PlayStation3.

"Ever since Netflix began instantly streaming movies and TV episodes to personal computers in January 2007 we’ve said we want to be ubiquitous on whatever device gets the Internet to the TV," said Netflix’s co-founder and CEO, Reed Hastings. "We’ve made incredible progress toward this goal over the last year and we’ve rapidly established Netflix as a must-have service for Internet connected consumer electronics devices. The important companies and brands we’ve announced today join a roster of world-class CE companies that have partnered with Netflix.