mSpot Movies Competes for New Release Market

StreamingMedia

While Netflix is the biggest online movie streamer, it's certainly not invulnerable. mSpot Movies is taking aim at Netflix's biggest weakness: the lack of new releases available for instant streaming.

mSpot Movies is offering discounted pricing for new releases, but only for members of its club. Today, it's announcing new club pricing. Being in the club means purchasing a set amount of credits per month, and then using those credits to buy movies. The Basic plan is $4.99 per month for 20 credits, the Plus plan offers 40 credits for $7.99 per month, and the Premium plan offers 80 credits for $15.99 per month.

To save on new releases available for credits, viewers will need to opt for a more expensive plan. For example, The movie Tangled rents for $3.99 or 15 credits. For Basic plan members, 15 credits cost $3.74, since that's 75 percent of their monthly allowance. Premium members would pay the equivalent of $3.00 for that same movie.

Going with a membership and credit system is risky, as one of the things shoppers enjoy in Netflix's instant streaming plan is the simplicity of the model.

That riskiness is highlighted by the fact that few new releases are available for credits. A glance at the mSpot Movies What's Hot page shows that most new releases are available for discount to club members, but aren't available for credits. Little Fockers, for example, rents for $3.99 or $3.79 to club members. There's no option for paying in credits. The site offers a Club Movies tab that shows the far smaller catalog of titles available for credits. Households that want to enjoy a lot of new releases would be better off getting the lower-priced Basic plan and then enjoying discounted a la carte pricing.

"We're finding that many of our customers want to watch new release movies that are not yet available for streaming on Netflix," says mSpot CEO Daren Tsui. "We've always competed very well with our new release selection and we're excited to offer our customers more competitive pricing."

April 15, 2011

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