mSpot offers movie rental subscription service

CNET

mSpot has launched a new subscription service that claims to save customers cash on movie rentals.

When users sign up for mSpot Movie Club, they can opt to pay $4.99, $7.99, or $15.99 per month for inclusion in the program. The cheapest option gives people 20 credits to put toward their rentals, while the two higher options offer customers 40 credits and 80 credits, respectively.

Spot is best known for allowing customers to rent films and stream them to iOS- and Android-based devices. The company's service, which includes new releases and older films, can also be accessed from a PC or Mac. However, unlike Netflix, which requires people to pay a single, $8 monthly fee for access to all of its content, mSpot customers pay $4 per new film they want to rent.

With the help of mSpot Movie Club, the company is trying to change that--sort of. After customers pick their plans and receive their credits, they can apply them to a respective rental, rather than pay cash. So, if a person wants to rent "Tangled," for example, Movie Club members will need to give up 15 credits to do so. Non-club members must pay $3.99. However, 15 credits is not necessarily the norm. There are other films on the mSpot service that will cost customers 10 or even 5 credits.
After a person's monthly allotment of credits is used up, they can opt to buy more for 25 cents per credit.

According to mSpot, just 45 percent of its films can be purchased with credits. All the others still require users to dole out cash.

Aside from getting credits, Movie Club members can also rent films for a slight discount. Non-club members pay $3.99 for "The Fighter," for example. Club members will only be charged $3.25. In other cases, like "The Social Network," mSpot knocks off 99 cents from the standard $3.99 price tag.

April 15, 2011

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