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NETFLIX Free Resources
So what are y...
So what are you going to do about it? That's where online DVD-rental service Netflix.com comes in. With the help of the Internet and the U.S. Postal Service, it's offering an alternate, and amazingly easy, way to rent DVDs. For a flat monthly fee, you get as many DVDs as you want and keep them for as long as you want. When you return one or all of them, the next selections on your list are mailed out.
TITLES APLENTY. Consumers are responding: Netflix recently announced that it has passed the 500,000 paid-subscriber mark. Now Blockbuster is testing a similar program that would allow an unlimited number of rentals for a monthly fee. And with Netflix on the brink of going public, it reported a first-quarter loss of $4.5 million on revenue that topped $30 million, up 78% on the first quarter of 2001. In a nod to the more conservative IPO market, the offering came only after Netflix achieved positive operating cash flow -- and even then, it was downsized from its original target.
Netflix offers four tiers of service, ranging from $13.95 a month, which lets you have two DVDs out at a time, to $29.95 for five at once. You pick movies from the 11,500-title online catalog and save your selections in a personalized "rental queue." They send you the first movie on your list. When you finish it, just pop it in the postage-paid envelope Netflix sends with every movie and drop it in the mailbox. As soon as Netflix gets it, they send your next selection.
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