Redbox has made some major strides in the movie-rental business, offering consumers the opportunity to pick up newly released films from a kiosk around town for just $1 per day. It has even forced Blockbuster to try a similar strategy.
But according to a report, Redbox isn't content to stick with movies.
According to Reuters, Redbox is currently in negotiations with video game developers to offer games in all the company's kiosks. Redbox president Mitch Lowe told the wire service his company is "talking early and often with the content providers of games so that we start out with a much better understanding of what we're doing."
Lowe was referencing Redbox's recent troubles with Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, and NBC Universal, which recently denied Redbox immediate access to their DVDs, saying a $1-per-day fee undervalues their films. Redbox is trying to sell game developers on the idea that its service would benefit both developers and consumers.
That said, Redbox doesn't plan to offer games for just $1. The company has been quietly testing game rentals in Reno, Nev., and Wilmington, N.C., and in those cases, games are priced at $2 per day. It offers games for the Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Xbox 360.
For now, Redbox isn't saying which developers it's in talks with. But considering the company currently has more than 20,000 kiosks in more than 17,000 locations nationwide, it might behoove game developers to consider it.
The Samsung UN46B7000--one of the newly entertained Samsung HDTVs.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)Samsung announced on Wednesday that on-demand video services from Blockbuster and Amazon are coming to some of its home entertainment products.
Blockbuster OnDemand, which allows people to rent or purchase video content on a one-off basis, is now available on some of Samsung's high-definition TVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems.
According to Samsung, the service will be offered on its Series 650 and above LCD and plasma HDTVs, as well as its Series 7000 and above LED HDTVs. Blockbuster OnDemand will be available to owners of the Samsung BD-P1600, BD-P3600, and BD-P4600 Blu-ray players, as well as the company's HT-BD1250, HT-BD3252, HT-BD7200, and HT-BD8200 Blu-ray home theater systems. The company said that the service is available now through a firmware upgrade.
As part of the rollout, Blockbuster OnDemand content can be streamed across multiple Blockbuster-enabled devices in the home. According to the company, users who order a particular movie can start watching it on one Samsung product in their home and continue watching it on another supported Samsung device.
For its part, Blockbuster has had a busy week. On Tuesday, the company announced that its OnDemand service was finally made available on TiVo DVRs. Like the service on TiVo, Samsung equipment owners can expect to pay between $2.99 and $3.99 for movie rentals. Blockbuster charges between $7.99 and $19.99 for film purchases.
As part of the deal, Blockbuster will start selling Samsung Blu-ray players that feature the company's OnDemand service in "thousands of corporate-owned stores and participating franchise stores." Blockbuster also said on Tuesday that it will also start selling TiVo DVRs in its stores.
But Samsung didn't stop there. The company also announced on Wednesday that Amazon Video On Demand will be offered to owners of Samsung LCD and plasma HDTVs that are series 650 and above, and LED HDTVs that are series 7000 and above. To get the service, users will need to download the Amazon Video On Demand widget using their television's Internet@TV content service.
Samsung said that once the user downloads the Amazon Video On Demand widget, they will be able to access Amazon's more than 50,000 movies and television shows. Amazon's widget joins already-available widgets from Twitter, Yahoo, YouTube, and others, the company said.
A growing trend?
The fact that Samsung has added Blockbuster's and Amazon's video services to its HDTVs shouldn't come as a surprise; it's competing in a marketplace where integrated entertainment is becoming the norm.
Earlier this year, LG announced the launch of two broadband-equipped HDTVs--the 47-inch 47LH50 and the 50-inch 50PS80--that feature the company's NetCast Entertainment Access. That service gives users the ability to access Netflix's streaming library of movies and TV shows. Toshiba is also getting in on the trend.
Broadband-connected TiVo DVR subscribers have access to Blockbuster's long-awaited OnDemand rental service, TiVo announced on Tuesday.
The service is available to owners of TiVo Series2 and TiVo Series3 digital-video recorders (including the TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL).
According to the company, users will be able to stream films ranging from new releases to classics. Users will be charged $2.99 for classic hits and $3.99 for new releases. Blockbuster will be adding more films over the coming weeks, including "select HD titles."
As part of the agreement, Blockbuster will also begin selling TiVo DVRs in "thousands" of participating Blockbuster stores around the United States.
Blockbuster OnDemand's arrival on the TiVo (and TiVo's arrival in Blockbuster stores, for that matter) has been a long time coming. The partnership was first announced in March.
Whether Blockbuster will enjoy success on the TiVo is up for debate. The company's main competitor, Netflix, is already streaming films and television shows to TiVos for no additional fee beyond the company's unlimited-plan charges. Amazon Video On Demand is also available to TiVo users, and like Blockbuster, it, too, allows them to purchase individual videos, rather than pay a monthly subscription fee.
TiVo owners can also access content from YouTube, as well as films through Jaman and CinemaNow's Disney.
To access Blockbuster OnDemand, users will first need to create a Blockbuster account. Once complete, they can access Blockbuster OnDemand content from the TiVo's video-on-demand menu.
A Securities and Exchange Commission filing has revealed Blockbuster's plans to close up to 960 retail store locations by the end of 2010 as it attempts to makes its operation more financially stable.
According to the company's filing, it plans to close all unprofitable stores, while refocusing its efforts "to improve four-wall profitability." To do so, the company first analyzed its over 7,000 stores to determine if they were profitable or not. A whopping 18 percent of Blockbuster's stores are unprofitable. The remaining stores are profitable.
Prior to making the decision to close some of its unprofitable locations, Blockbuster planned to close 280 to 300 stores as part of a grouping it calls, "normal closures." Stores added to the "accelerated closures" category will also be closed by the end of this year. According to Blockbuster, the number of accelerated closures will equal 300 to 385 locations.
Next year will be a slightly less active year for store closures. Blockbuster indicated in its SEC filing that 2010 will bring 100 to 125 normal closures and 130 to 150 accelerated closures. By the end of 2010, it expects to have closed 810 to 960 retail locations.
As troubling as that might sound, Blockbuster spokesperson Randy Hargrove said in a phone conversation that a certain amount of measured skepticism should be exercised. According to Hargrove, these figures are not guaranteed.
"All these stores are candidate stores," Hargrove said. "Although we may in fact close that many stores, if we can renegotiate leases or remodel stores to make them more profitable, that number might go down."
But Blockbuster's closure story doesn't quite end there. Further down in the filing, Blockbuster indicated that 275 to 300 stores are subject to the company's "lease mitigation/termination efforts." Another 250 to 300 stores might be converted into outlets. If successful, that would bring Blockbuster's grand total of rental store closures to 1,335 to 1,560, or up to about 22 percent of all the stores currently in operation.
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Somewhere, someone is smiling at Blockbuster headquarters.
When Netflix announced on Monday that it has decided to raise the subscription prices for those receiving Blu-ray Disc titles--10 percent of its subscribers, according to the company--the predictable occurred: people lashed out, saying Netflix is gouging customers.
In case you missed it, the new fee structure tacks on $1 per tier of the plan you're on. So if you have a one-film-at-a-time plan (two-movie allowance per month), your monthly cost has risen from $4.99 to $5.99. If you want three films at a time (unlimited movie allowance per month), your cost has risen $4, from $16.99 to $20.99. Fees are up substantially on other plans too.
Predictably, many looked at the announcement as Netflix capitalizing on consumers. Those who are upset with the release say the increase is too high. And since Netflix doesn't need to pay for packaging, and it probably gets a discount on media, given the number of copies it needs, they believe that the company is gouging customers.
I contacted Netflix for comment regarding this contention. A representative responded to me within a few minutes. He said the cost of Blu-ray discs is 30 percent higher than that of DVDs, and more of the company's customers are switching to Blu-ray, generating higher operating expenses. A $1 additional charge for Blu-ray access on all plans wasn't cutting it any longer, he said.
The representative then directed me to the company's official blog post on the matter for more information. So after all that, we still don't know how much Netflix pays.
But regardless of the motives behind this deal or the fact that some people are upset, we can't look at Netflix pricing in a vacuum. Quite the contrary, we need to compare its pricing to the competition to determine if it's still the most affordable option on the market.
Much to my surprise, Netflix might have committed an incredible blunder that it needs to address immediately: Blockbuster brick-and-mortar stores now have the more affordable option for standard Blu-ray rentals.
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Blockbuster and TiVo announced a deal Wednesday that will make between 5,000 and 10,000 films available to TiVo users. Customers will be able to rent ($4) or buy ($20) films, including current major titles. It's about time: Netflix and Amazon's on-demand services are already available on TiVo. Netflix offers approximately 12,000 older and less compelling titles on the box, but Netflix users don't need to pay anything beyond their monthly fee to access movies on the DVR. Those who want to use Amazon's service, which already offers most of the films Blockbuster will stream, pay about the same rental fees as Blockbuster will charge.
I've called Blockbuster to task on its late release of contemporary technology, but I wanted to give the company a chance to respond, so I discussed what I consider Blockbuster's shortcomings with its newly installed senior vice president of digital entertainment, Kevin Lewis.
Lewis contends that his company is more than just a movie rental chain. He says Blockbuster is an entertainment retailer, which is why it wanted to make its service available to TiVo users.
"We are the only entertainment retailer with the ability to serve you a movie where you want, when you want it, how you want," Lewis said. "Whether it's at one of our stores, through virtual kiosks, or via downloads on a box like the TiVo, we can provide you with the most robust service." He told me that unlike Netflix, Amazon, and any other competitor, Blockbuster has the opportunity to service its customers across multiple channels, making its deal with TiVo all the more compelling.
"We recognize that our consumers don't act the same way every time because their needs are different," Lewis said. "Because of that, we plan to go wherever the consumer goes. And although Netflix and Amazon are already on the TiVo box, when we get there, users will know that we're the only company of the three that can offer them a movie no matter how they want it. Our competitors don't have that multi-channel capability. It's our special sauce."
... Read moreEver since Apple enabled users to download movies on iTunes, the world waited with bated breath to see if the company would launch a movie rental service. Unfortunately, those people are still waiting.
But with a renewed sense of importance toward getting movies through iTunes into your hands, Apple may finally pull the trigger and create a full-fledged movie rental business.
Even better, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that launch could happen at Macworld. As Munster points out, his team expects Apple to announce new partnerships with at least one more movie studio, and this may be followed by the immediate availability of a movie rental service.
If that's not enough to whet the appetite of Apple fanatics all over the world, Munster also believes the Apple TV will play a key role in the launch.
"If Apple begins renting movie downloads on iTunes, we expect a related software update to the Apple TV enabling movie rentals direct to the Apple TV. In fact, the Apple TV software currently includes 'iTunes Store settings' in its settings menu, but the option is essentially inactive," he wrote. "We expect this setting to be activated soon; users will likely be able to log into their iTunes accounts directly from the Apple TV and browse movie rentals, then download them directly to their Apple TV."
Of course, the story doesn't end there. Simply put, should Apple even consider movie rentals, and if so, what good will it be for the company? Suffice it to say, if Apple decides to give movie rentals the green light, it'll be one of the company's most intelligent moves in years.
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