Warner Brothers Doubles DVD and Streaming Rental Delay, Hopes To Sell More Discs

Warner Brothers has announced plans to delay the release of its movies for DVD rental and streaming purposes to 56 days, double the company’s current 28 day rule.

Rumors of an increase had been circulating for some time after the company revealed they were not happy with current agreements which offer customers very little incentive when it comes to actually purchasing a DVD or Blu-ray disc.

While the move sidesteps DVD and streaming release dates for services such as Netflix and Redbox who rely on cheaper costs to support their low rental pricing, other outlets such as Blockbuster and Family Video can still purchase the movies at full wholesale pricing and then rent them to customers.

It’s likely that streaming providers will attempt to pay more money to Warner Brothers as they attempt to close the added time on that window.

Warner Brothers is not officially commenting on the move at this time although they are expected to reveal their plans at CES next week.

In the meantime with the rise of BitTorrent access, streaming services such as MegaVideo and other means for finding and downloading movies it will be interesting to see what type of piracy occurs as the company attempts to keep wanted movies out of the renting hands of potential viewers.

Will you be heading out to buy movies now that you have to wait a longer period of time to rent or steam them? I will personally just watch non-Warner Brothers movies until their flicks finally reach Red Box.