Corona | Coming Attractions

Netflix has reached an agreement with Warner Bros. which will see the online DVD rental company stop offering new WB DVD and Blu-ray releases to its customers for the first four weeks of release. The studio hopes that the decision by Netflix will mean its sales of new discs will stop trending downward and reverse course as upwards of 75% of its revenue from DVD sales is made in a title's first four weeks of release.

Warner Bros. is a leader in the DVD market and commands about one-fifth of overall sales. If Netflix hadn't worked out something with the studio it's likely that some kind of pressure would have been exerted by the entertainment giant on the rental company. In the summer Warners had made statements that it would try and dissuade disc rental companies from offering its new titles within the first 28 days of release. Now that Netflix has stepped in line with WB's thinking it's very likely that other disc rental companies like Redbox and Smartflix will also adjust their offerings.

It's not a total loss for Netflix. In exchange for appeasing the manufacturer Netflix will gain greater access to bigger numbers of newly release WB titles as well as granting the rights to stream newer Warner Bros. releases on Netflix's video-on-demand streaming service.