Blockbuster killed enough of Netflix‘s market share by introducing Total Access feature with which one could exchange the movie packet obtained through mail for an in-store movie. This means, technically you can double the number of movies you watch for the same price.

Though being a Netflix fan, I moved to Blockbuster, lured by the double whammy offer. It’s been smooth since then. I moved to the 1 dvd at-a-time scheme and was able to watch atleast 15 movies a month. I have to accept that its overwhelming sometimes to watch 15 movies a month.

After pulling enough of marketshare from Netflix through this plan, Blockbuster recently started to grandfather existing subscribers to their unlimited in-store exchange plan while it moved others to a new plan which limited in-store exhanges. Depedning on how heavily you use their Total Access feature, the plan to retain your account under the the old plan was made.

Luckily I have a blockbuster right across the street and was able to use the in-store exchange every time. Hence I think, my account is now retained under the old scheme. And the account page reads this –

BLOCKBUSTER Total Access Premium $9.99 / month (plus taxes). 1 at-a-time, unlimited mailings, unlimited in-store free movie/discounted game exchanges +1 FREE bonus Movie or Game Rental E-Coupon / Month

It’s a pity that some of the existing subscribers were moved to the new ‘blockbusted’ plan. Meanwhile Netflix began offering DVD quality downloads of movies, in addition to the DVD by mail option which seem to interest me.

Atleast a good percentage of ‘blockbusted’ subscribers will now move to this super lazy Netflix plan. No more store exchanges for them as they can just click on their computers to watch DVD movies. And ofcourse, there is Apple TV to stream movies to your TV, if you hate watching movies on a 19 inch monitor.