Netflix watchers, like myself, were aware that Amazon was entering this market, eventually.
Amazon Rents DVDs by Mail in U.K.:
Amazon.com Inc. entered the increasingly competitive DVD rental-by-mail business with the introduction of a service aimed at movie fans in the U.K.The Seattle-based Internet retailer Thursday introduced two plans under which consumers can order DVDs over the Internet and have them delivered to their homes through the mail: customers who pay £s;9.99 a month (US$19.32) receive three videos at a time, up to six a month, while those who pay £s;7.99 receive two DVDs at a time, up to four a month. Like other companies with similar services, Amazon isn't charging late fees on videos, which consumers return by putting them into special envelopes and dropping them in the mail.
Amazon's entry into the business was expected since the biggest company in the market, Netflix Inc., said in October that it expected Amazon to launch a competitive service in the near future. Amazon wouldn't say when it plans to introduce a DVD rental service in the U.S. or other countries, though executives said they believe the company is in a good position to do so eventually.
...
Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix of Los Gatos, Calif., believes Amazon first entered the U.K. market because the entire country can be serviced effectively from one warehouse, which Amazon already operates on the outskirts of London. In the U.S., in contrast, Netflix has a network of 30 warehouses near metropolitan areas so that it can provide over-night delivery of movies to the vast majority of its customers. Amazon has six warehouses in the U.S. for its existing retail business, many of them in rural areas.
When Netflix first started, they only had a few warehouses, and my experience was 'unreliable', to be kind. Now, most discs reach me within a day or two, a vast improvement.
