28 days is a small price to pay for an improved streaming selection. Especially with Warner Brothers who has a massive catalog of titles. If you're not seeing it in the theater, not buying the DVD, chances are you really don't absolutely need to see it in the first 28 days either. Pretty good deal by Netflix.
The claim of "improved streaming selection" hasn't been elaborated on or even substantiated anywhere that I've seen.
Even if it were, I'd still disagree. Now my Netflix account is no longer sufficient to handle all of my DVD rental needs and I have to go to one of their competitors to fill that gap. It's a real shame and a major ding to one of the few services that I considered practically perfect (on the physical DVD side) and improving (on the streaming side) every year.
People like new things. Netflix will no longer be offering new things. That smells like market opportunity to me.
Acting through the distributors is a feint, which Universal is big enough to attempt (in that they have sufficient influnece with distributors) but which doesn't cost them too much if they lose. Note that they haven't lost yet - The court has dsimissed some of Redbox's claims, but affirmed their right to bring a case asserting antitrust behavior by Universal.
Whether they'll win it or not I don't know, although the judge seems sympathetic to Universal in their distributors voluntarily entered into an agreement with the studio to distinguish between DVDs sold for retail and for rental, and Universal are just asking them to stick by that contract, which predates any agreement between those distributors and Redbox.
I don't know the specific strategic thinking of Universal's lawyers and here, and as I said I'm not a lawyer myself - this is just my reading of what's taking place. I can say that the distribution executives that I have spoken to about this all hate RedBox - while admiring their chutzpah and business drive, they loathe seeing their product dispensed and priced like a bag of potato chips.
Thanks for reposting that opinion, BTW. I'd forgotten how many jokes it contains :-)