The city's two remaining video rental outlets are reaping the benefits that have come with the recent closure of Rogers Video after 13 years in business.

The national chain shut down its video rental operations last month. It had been the only place to rent movies in Whitehorse's downtown area.

That left the locally owned 38 Famous Video in Riverdale and Coyote Video in Porter Creek as the only rental outlets in Whitehorse.

"Business has doubled,” Stephen Kwok, who owns the Riverdale store, said in an interview last week.

Coyote owner Cory Adams said his Porter Creek Centre store has also seen an increase, though it's not the boost he'd anticipated.

While Rogers has left the business in favour of providing movies through Internet/TV streaming (a service it doesn't offer in the Yukon), both Kwok and Adams say they believe there is still a significant market for video rentals.

"You can't stream the quality,” Adams said as he pointed to the significant number of customers coming in for Blu-ray disks, which provide a higher-quality screening than DVDs do.

He sees about a 50/50 split in Blu-ray and DVD rentals, many customers initially coming in to look for a Blu-ray.

When the Blu-ray edition of a movie isn't available, his customers then look for the DVD edition with Blu-ray players also able to run DVDs.

"We see Blu-ray growing,” Kwok commented, noting many of his customers opt to rent the physical disks in order to get the special features they wouldn't get with streaming.

When Avatar was released, for example, customers were anxious to watch the six-plus hours of extras included on the disk.

Other video rental shops down south have moved to renting out Blu-ray discs only.

Both Kwok and Adams, however, say there is still enough demand for DVDs to continue renting out both in the city.

While there are benefits to renting, both video store owners also acknowledged they're thankful to Northwestel Inc. for limiting bandwidth in the territory. It helps prevent residents from downloading videos they currently rent.

Northwestel digital cable customers can use the Video On Demand and Pay Per View options to watch movies they could otherwise rent.

As Kwok pointed out, however, using those options too often can lead to a hefty cable bill at the end of the month similar to a hefty Internet bill that would come from exceeding the bandwidth limits. Renting videos at the store is a one-time payment.

While the two video rental shop owners believe their businesses are secure despite more movie-watching choices for consumers, Adams acknowledged it's impossible to predict what the future might hold five or 10 years down the road.