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Netflix is having a rough week. The streaming giant has now cracked down on account sharing, resulting in a wave of unhappy comments from customers. It comes as subscriber numbers gradually contract, revenues shrink and many popular shows are being canceled before their time.
All of this means it’s high time for Blockbuster Video to get some payback. The once-dominant video/DVD rental giant was almost eradicated by Netflix in the 2000s and 2010s, though still just about lives on in much-diminished form. But it seems revenge is a dish best served cold:
This is all the more amusing as it’s Blockbuster’s late fees that arguably resulted in Netflix’s existence. In 1997 Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings rented out Apollo 13 from his local blockbuster, only to be dismayed when he clocked up a $40 late return fee. Figuring there had to be a more consumer-friendly way to rent videos he began to formulate his own company, with Netflix being founded in 1999.
A year later in 2000 Blockbuster made one of the all-time boneheaded business decisions. At this point, Netflix was a small company with big ideas about the future of video distribution. Plans for a gigantic streaming network were technically unfeasible, though they were making strides in DVD rental-by-mail and Blockbuster was offered the chance to buy Netflix for a paltry $50 million.
Blockbuster turned down the offer and the rest is history. But hey, even so it’s nice to see this blast from the past getting some long-overdue payback.
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