Peter Griffin: Late fees a thing of the past

COMMENT

Every Friday and Saturday night, the top of the street I live on in Ponsonby becomes a traffic nightmare. That's because at the top of the road is the entrance to Video Ezy Ponsonby.

Residents from all over the area park on the kerbs and in Video Ezy's cramped carpark while they duck into the video store to pick up their weekend movie choices.

If you're picky about what you watch and don't like the crowds you're best to steer clear at those times. But browsing the isles of Video Ezy is great. You come across titles buried in the "festival" or "classic" sections you never knew existed. If you're in a rush and have some friends to entertain you can snatch a newly released title and be on your way.

If you're slack like I am on getting your DVDs back to the store on time, the "no late fees" promise of the online services will appeal. On the other hand, you have to stop by a post box to send your DVDs back.


While the online DVD services don't differentiate in price between new releases and old classics, the bulk of movie hires are from the back catalogue - the likes of Casablanca and The Godfather.

So if you're a big consumer of new movies you're already ahead. While you can often rent three or four back-catalogue movies from a video store for $10 a week, a new release will set you back up to $8 overnight.

These new online services are here to stay, filling a gap until we can choose any movie we like and it is beamed down from a satellite or sent over the phone lines - true video on demand.

In the meantime, go ahead and try them for yourselves. With the free trial offers you have nothing to lose.