Foreign DVD Rental Companies
While MoviesInHouse.com currently only reviews sites based in the United States, we are up-to-date on what companies are prospering across the globe. If you currently reside outside the States or plan on moving, these companies may be able to help you continue enjoying the benefits of online DVD rental.
Canada
By far the biggest rental company in Canada is Zip.ca with current estimates at around 37,000 monthly subscribers. There are four shipping centers that are located in Ottawa, Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver. Unlike Netflix, Zip has a feature called ZipRefill that allows customers to mark a disc as returned on the website and expedite the next DVD before the other has been returned. Zip offers a number of affordable rental plans including two unlimited DVD plans.
There are a number of smaller competitors that currently don't have the selection or features of Zip.ca. They include Canflix.ca, Cinemail.ca, and Videomatica.ca. While Netflix announced in 2005 that they'd be expanding to Canada, they have not yet done so and have shown no promising signs.
Mexico
Rental services in Mexico are condensed to local areas. DVD2GO is the largest company and only operates in the cities of Monterrey and Guadalajara. They user motorcycle bound delivery personnel which is much faster than their post office. Blockbuster launched in parts of Mexico in 2007 and has primarily serviced condos and corporate offices. They have future plans to expand to other areas of the country and use motorcycle delivery similar to DVD2GO.
United Kingdom
LOVEFiLM is the primary DVD rental company in the UK. They provide white label services for CD-WOW!, Sofa Cinema, WHSmith Movies Direct, Tesco DVD Rental, EasyCinema.com, Odeon Direct and others. They are essentially the Netflix of the UK but working under those other aliases. After merging with Video Island in 2006, they now control nearly 400,000 monthly subscribers and nearly 65% of the market share. They also recently acquired the rights to Amazon's DVD rental service in the United Kingdom and Germany. LOVEFiLM's prices and plans vary based on which white label service is used, but are similar to what you'd find in the United States. Due to the small geographic nature of the country, multiple shipping centers are not needed and delivery times are above average.
Australia
With estimates ranging in the 50,000 subscriber range, the Australian market is dominated by BigPond Movies (formerly FetchMeMovies) and Quickflix.
BigPond Movies is the larger of the two and is owned by telecommunication company Telstra. They offer a 30-day free trial which allows you four DVDs out at one time. They have a relatively large catalog of movies and good turnaround times if you are within one of the major cities where a shipping center is located (Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney). A unique feature is the option to mark a box in your member's area that says you've returned a DVD that day. They claim they will then mail your next copy the following day without waiting for the return. We have read some claims of this working, while others saying that it didn't. All in all, from our research, they seem to be a solid DVD rental company with a reputable company behind them.
Quickflix has distribution centers in Adelaide, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. They have a complex members area that allows users to rate and review movies which help in determining suggestions offered by their “movie selector”. Their most popular plan comes in at $36.95 a month and offers unlimited DVD rentals with a 14-day free trial. We've also seen mixed reviews on this company with some stating they liked the renting aspect including a solid customer service team, but just felt the delivery speed was sub-par compared to their major competitors.
Other companies servicing the land down under include DVDDirect, DVDJam, V2Direct, and WebFlicks. It's important to note that some of these companies only service smaller parts of Australia and are limited in their movie selections.
New Zealand
Three primary DVD rental companies battle it out for supremacy and operate out of the largest city of Auckland. DVD Unlimited, Fatso, and MovieShack are heavily debated throughout the country and all have their fans and detractors. For the most part, they are similar in providing around 15,000 movie titles and similar pricing structures.
India
DVD rental services in India are unique to anywhere else on the globe. They each run their own delivery service and do not use the national postal service for anything. Each company uses unique methods of handling their shipping from their own delivery people, to drop boxes, to store exchanges. Companies currently operating include ClixFlix, MovieMart, Seventymm, Cinebox, CineSprite, CatchFlix, HindiFlix, and HomeView. To be honest, we don't have a lot of background information on any of these companies and can say that since they each have their own unique delivery methods, trial and error may be your best bet.
Japan
Currently there are two major DVD rental companies operating named Posren and Tustaya Discas.
Germany
This is one of the faster growing European markets for online DVD rental. Currently the major companies include Amazon.de, inVDeo.de, glorimedia.de, Amango, and Videobuster.de.
South Africa
Three major companies currently operate out of South Africa. PushPlay which launched in 2006 is the largest and most popular in the country. They claim to house over 60,000 titles and offer a 2-week free trial. BigPix which is based out of Durban also uses post office in their DVD delivery. Finally there is DVDsOnline.co.za which is a bit more expensive but offers door-to-door courier service of their rentals.
It is important to note that we have not tested or used any of these services listed above. They are listed strictly for informational purposes and your own research should determine if they are worth using. Information was collected through various sources and our own research online. If you have information on the companies listed above, or others that we have not yet found, please contact us and let us know.