Blockbuster Decides Online is the Future After All

Posted on November 25, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized |

First they said they wouldn’t be rushed to market with a download service, but it turns out Blockbuster was rushing after all. You have to buy the set top box and then $2-4.00 a movie, and their is a requirement you start the movie within 30 days then then finish it in 24 hours. BTW, this mimics iTunes terms but I would not point to iTunes as a smashing success when it comes to movie downloads either, and Apple TV has not been Apple’s most shining moment either.

Blockbuster is the first major customer to deploy the MediaPoint digital media player from San Jose’s 2Wire. The service will give the video retailer a chance to compete in the growing video-on-demand market against companies like Vudu and Apple. Unlike Netflix’s deals to bring movies to TiVo boxes, DVD players and the Xbox 360, Blockbuster will not be a subscription model. Users will pay $99 for the MediaPoint box, which will include 25 movie downloads. After that, movie downloads will be as little as $1.99 for standard-definition rentals.

[From Blockbuster bringing movies into the TV]

Basically they are subsidizing the set top box with 25 free downloads, which could be worth $50-100 depending on what movies you download. It’ll be interesting to watch how this plays out considering Blockbuster’s well publicized fiasco with unlimited rental times which actually were limited for DVDs the last time they tried to compete head on with Netflix.

It’s clear that nobody has nailed the movie download service model yet. Amazon’s service has been a non-event, Netflix is probably the furthest along in terms of adoption and their Tivo announcement certainly boosts them, Apple is lagging here when compared to their other segments, and this Blockbuster announcement is a little too little to get excited about.

Comments

  • Feeds