With the convenience of the internet, vast DVD title range and low prices, online DVD rental is becoming a popular choice for renting DVD’s. With the ever increasing penetration of the internet and consumer spending over the internet following close behind, it doesn’t take a lot to imagine that Online DVD Rental may well overtake the traditional high street alternative.
The
Online DVD Rental website was established earlier this year to provide consumers independent reviews, comparisons and rankings of the major UK providers of online DVD rental services. Comparing the various online DVD rental companies needs to take into account a number of factors, including:
(i) Number of DVD titles offered by the rental company;
(ii) Availability and length of a Free Trial period;
(iii) Any penalties and/or restrictions of the service;
(iv) Website Design and ease of use;
(v) Film classification and ease of finding your favourite DVD titles;
(vi) Range of packages available and pricing; and
(vii) Any hidden extra's
Price is just one of these important factors, and this article seeks to help people understand the various packages available and how to understand which offer best value for money. It is important to stress however, that the cheapest price is not necessarily indicative of the best online service provider.
The price of the rental package doesn’t mean anything in terms of value, unless you consider the price it has cost you to watch each DVD per month. This means you need to know how many DVD’s you can realistically watch in any given month.
So, how many DVD’s can you receive in a month? Well, it depends upon a number of things including (i) how quickly you watch the DVD after receiving it, (ii) how quickly you get it back into the return post, (iii) how quickly the postal service gets it back to the online provider, (iv) how quickly the online provider registers its return and allocates your next selected DVD, and (v) how quickly the postal service delivers it to you.
While you can’t control all of these unknowns our experience has been that if you select the one DVD at a time package, and you watch the DVD and return it the same day, you can receive three DVD’s a week or twelve a month. This means, that if you pay £9.99 per month then the average price for each DVD you watches is just 83 pence – now that’s great value. Not everyone will be able to watch and return so quickly but its still a good price if you watch less DVD’s a month. For example, two DVD’s a week works out at £1.24 per DVD and one DVD a week works out at £2.49.
As a final point, its absolutely essential that you keep a list of 20 plus DVD titles registered with your online provider so that the next DVD can be dispatched to you quickly. We are compiling a list of
Must See movies to help you maintain your watch list.
Online DVD Rental22nd August 2006
