Netflix Inc. and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced today they have reached a new agreement, according to which new DVD and Blu-ray titles from WB will be available for rental 28 days after their release. At the time, it is unclear whether catalog titles newly released to Blu-ray will be affected as well. Similar agreements are expected between Netflix and other major movie studios later this year.
Warner Home Video President Ron Sanders and Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos expressed their satisfaction with the agreement, calling it a "win-win" for both companies (the big loser in the deal –the customer base of both companies– was not mentioned in the public statements).
Back in October 2009, it had been revealed that some major film studios were considering a policy of keeping discs unavailable for rental until several weeks after going on sale, and that Netflix was open to the idea (see blu-ray.com,
October 23).