Fatso was a New Zealand online DVD and video game rental service that mailed DVDs,

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

discs and video games to customers around New Zealand. Fatso was founded in 2004 and was based in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

. In 2011, Fatso offered over 27,000 titles to around 20,000 subscribers, and had a full-time staff of 25. This made it the largest such rental service in New Zealand. It was operated by SKY TV, which owned 51% of the enterprise. In September 2017 it was announced that the service would cease to operate on 23 November 2017 due to low membership (fewer than 10,000), making the service uneconomical to run.

History

Fatso was founded in 2004 by Rob Berman of Westside Media. In 2008 it merged with competitors

DVD Unlimited DVD Unlimited was a DVD-by-mail service based in Auckland, New Zealand. It was a wholly owned unit of SKY Network Television. It competed directly with Movieshack and Fatso. DVD Unlimited was originally based in Nelson, and was created in l ...

and

Movieshack Movieshack was an online DVD rental company in New Zealand. Based in Auckland, it was launched on 28 June 2004 and introduced commercial online DVD rentals to New Zealand. The company was founded (anecdotally, from a bedroom) by brothers James ...

to form Screen Enterprises Limited, which operated a single service under the Fatso name. SKY TV (which operated DVD Unlimited) owned 51%, with Berman as general manager. The merger was reported as being due to the home delivered DVD market not being "big enough for the three of them." In 2012 Fatso began offering video game rental, with a service known as "Games Club". It was operated in a different way to the DVD and Blu-ray rentals, with a daily charge per game. In August 2013 Berman left Fatso, moving to Shop HQ, an e-commerce venture backed by

The Warehouse The Warehouse Group (TWG) was founded by Stephen Tindall in 1982, and is the largest retail group operating in New Zealand. It is a corporate group that consists of The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Torpedo7, Noel Leeming, 1-day and TheMar ...

. He retained his stake in Fatso.

Services

DVD and Blu-ray rental

Fatso was founded as a DVD rental service, and then also began to offer Blu-ray rentals. Plans ranged from $9.95 a month for two DVDs (one at a time), to $37.99 a month for unlimited DVDs (three at a time). The service was the largest of its kind in the country, holding around 5% of the total DVD rental market in New Zealand. The service had no late fees or set return times.

Games Club

Games Club was Fatso's video game rental service, started in 2012. Unlike the DVD/Blu-ray service, there was a daily, as opposed to monthly, charge for each game. Games were available for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS2, Xbox, GameCube and Wii platforms, and prices ranged from 49c to $3.00. Fatso used

New Zealand Post NZ Post ( mi, Tukurau Aotearoa), shortened from New Zealand Post, is a state-owned enterprise responsible for providing postal service in New Zealand. The New Zealand Post Office, a government agency, provided postal, banking, and telecommuni ...

to send rentals to customers, and return postage was covered by the subscription costs.

References

External links

* http://www.fatso.co.nz {{DEFAULTSORT:Fatso (Online Dvd Rental Service) Online retailers of New Zealand Video rental services Retail companies established in 2004 Internet properties established in 2004 New Zealand companies established in 2004