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Comment by stkdump | Hacker News Reader

I used to live next to a DVD rental place that was 1€ per day. Often I would return the movie the same night. I used to watch 1-2 movies per month. Nowadays I have Netflix for what, 12€ a month? I still watch maybe one movie a month. So I guess I pay ~10x for not having to step outside?

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I sure did watch a lot more stuff when I lived a block away from Scarecrow Video, one of the last great video rental stores. With shelves full of stuff that had been curated, with staff notes here and there calling out the occasional film.

Theoretically the streaming services are more convenient, they're all lurking right there on my PS4, but... I never really touch the things.

So I suppose we should all move within walking distance to a rental place (that too a cheap one at that). Even back then it’s a pipe dream.

You pay 10x for access to Netflix’s content.

The fact that you only want to watch 1 movie out of their catalog is irrelevant. I do not find their content worth it, so I do not pay Netflix.

I find it better to just rent a movie from an online provider if/when I want to watch one, since I rarely watch. If I want to watch it over and over, I buy it (kids’ movies).

So I pay for what I don't need to get the little that do I need. What you call irrelevant I call the core of their business model.

My point was that it is not productive to compare a la carte business models to all you can eat business models.

If you want to compare DVD rental to renting a movie on Apple/Google Play/Amazon, that would make more sense.

Bit of a niche anecdote.

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