Netflix's New Releases About To Get Even Longer Delay?

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You’ll remember, not so long ago, that a lot of studios were getting together to put a hold on orders going out to Netflix and Redbox–in Netflix’s case, they accepted delays on a conditional basis, using the delays as leverage to get access to streaming rights, while Redbox was basically left to just take them or go out of business, as some word suggested. But at least one company, Time Warner, liked the results of forcing Netflix and Redbox to delay so much that they’re considering extending it.

The deals that are currently in place are set to expire in 2011, so any changes are still a ways off time-wise, but it’s still a possibility, especially considering word like this, coming out of Time Warner’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes:

“So far the 28-day window has clearly been a success versus no delay. The question of whether we ought to go longer is very much under scrutiny. It may well be a good idea.”

Frankly, I’m not too sure how much impact this would have anyway. Most of Netflix’s customers (of which I’ve been one for several years now) focus primarily on so-called “catalog titles”, or titles that have been released for some time now, so a delay in the arrival of new release titles isn’t exactly a hardship. In fact, I almost wonder if a kind of stratification is developing here, in which brick and mortar stores get and handle the new stuff, whilst larger repositories like Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster Online handle the older stuff. After all, there were well over 130,000 titles on Netflix at last report and that just two months ago. No brick and mortar video store has that kind of capacity, even former giant Blockbuster. You’d need a video store the size of a Walmart to handle that kind of load.

Will another new DVD delay hurt Netflix?  Some, perhaps, but significantly? That I’m not so sure of. Either way, Time Warner’s thinking it over, and considering Epix and Sony Movie Channel’s existence, Warner may well be considering its own streaming efforts.

All possibilities, and possibilities we’ll have to keep an eye on.