rental

Unable to beat Netflix, Blockbuster swats at GameFly

Blockbuster has decided to take on GameFly by offering over 3,000 video games in its By Mail offering.

According to Blockbuster, its mail service will now offer games for every major console, including the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii, as well as titles from the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2. It was quick to point out that, unlike Netflix, it's the only company that delivers customers the option to rent movies, television shows, and games all in the same package.

The company isn't charging any more for the service by adding video games to … Read more

Redbox rolls out Blu-ray rentals

Redbox, which has rented more than 880 million DVDs since its inception, is now starting to offer Blu-ray rentals at some of its 23,000 kiosks, the company announced Friday.

The company didn't provide too many details on its Blu-ray rentals. A new Blu-ray page is displayed on the company's site, saying simply that the company now rents the format. It also has a search box where users can input their ZIP codes to see if Blu-ray films are available in their area.

According to a Twitter update sent out earlier today on the official Redbox account, the … Read more

Netflix to stream some first-run movies

Netflix has signed a long-term agreement with Relativity Media to stream first-run films from the movie studio and financier, the companies said Tuesday.

The deal will allow Netflix subscribers to stream the movies online a few months after their DVD releases but during what is traditionally known as the "pay TV window."

Relativity, the studio responsible for "Get him to the Greek" and "Grown Ups," says it produces or finances 20 to 30 new movies each year. The first of its films to be made available through Netflix streaming will be "The Fighter&… Read more

Blockbuster stock to be delisted from NYSE

Blockbuster's stock will no longer be available on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) starting next week, the company announced in a statement Thursday.

The issue, according to Blockbuster, started in November, when the NYSE contacted the company and informed it that because its shares had an average price of less than $1 over a consecutive 30-day period, it was in danger of being delisted from the market, if it couldn't find a remedy at its annual meeting in May. Since then, the company's stock price has stayed below $1 per share.

In an attempt to save … Read more

Thumb war on texting while driving

I would like to give two thumbs up to the thumb sock. Although I wonder if it is too hot to wear thumb gloves now that summer is upon us?

Sure this is gimmicky. And silly. And certainly it wouldn't hinder texting on a phone with physical keyboard phone. But it may serve as a reminder that texting on the road is lethal. And stupid. Don't do it.

Other stories from Monday afternoon's episode of Loaded:

Best Buy launches its Netflix competitor to stream movies and videos

Apple updates the MacBook

Hotmail gets a little hotter with… Read more

YouTube will let some users charge for rentals

YouTube's fledgling movie rental program will soon be taking an interesting twist: some content owners will soon be able to use a "self service" tool to charge for access to their videos, product manager Hunter Walk said this week in an interview with MediaPost.

Few details are currently available--none about revenue sharing, none regarding what kind of flexibility content owners will have over pricing, and no final timetable--but it's an interesting move on behalf of YouTube parent company Google, as it competes with Apple and Netflix for the growing online-video rental market.

YouTube first delved into … Read more

PayPal wants your start-up

After revealing at Demo the winners of its Developers Challenge, PayPal had a consolation prize for the companies that didn't win the award: the company is announcing a funding project for new apps builders. Participants in the PayPal Startup Accelerator Program can get not just funding, but space at the PayPal building as well as access to PayPal's marketing muscle.

Given the inevitable growth of competitive payment technologies (see Square), it's smart for PayPal to encourage companies to build on its platform in whatever way it can. And let's not forget: Doing a start-up on a … Read more

Trouble ahead: Blockbuster posts $435 million loss

The hard times just keep slapping Blockbuster. The company announced Wednesday that it posted a $435 million loss for the fourth quarter.

The poor performance is especially hard, considering it happened in the fourth quarter--usually Blockbuster's best months. In the third quarter, the company lost over $114 million.

Back in September, the company announced that it would be closing up to 960 underperforming stores to increase its earnings by $50 million to $60 million. Blockbuster closed 374 U.S. stores last year and plans to accelerate its plans to shutter an additional 545 retail locations this year.

To revitalize … Read more

Rosensweig named chief of Chegg

Dan Rosensweig, a high-profile technology executive, is the new president and chief executive of the online textbook rental company Chegg.

The appointment, announced by Chegg co-founder Osman Rashid on Tuesday, becomes effective immediately. Rosensweig finds himself in a crowded business segment, with Chegg squaring off against its chief rival, BookRenter.com, as well as megasize book retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com and smaller local booksellers.

But helped by penny-pinching concerns born of a bracing recession, students increasingly view textbook rental as an attractive alternative to purchasing their books outright. The service operates on a time clock. … Read more