RSSBlockbuster gains ground in rental kiosk turf war
By Tim Conneally | Published September 16, 2009, 11:49 AM
Yet another home movie product has turned into a color war between red and blue.
Republicans versus Democrats, Bloods versus Crips, HD DVD versus Blu-ray -- whenever two groups are vying for some territory claim, they mark it with a red or a blue flag. Coinstar's Redbox DVD rental kiosks have marked off some 15,000 locations across the United States with a big red...well, box.
By mid-2010, there are expected to be 10,000 Blockbuster Express kiosks staking out locations with a big blue box.
Blockbuster was king of the megastore movie rental business in the United States. But as the rental model began to shift more toward by-mail rental plans, streaming video on demand, and small but ubiquitous DVD rental kiosks, it lost significant ground to competitors that had no physical stores at all: Netflix and Redbox.
To compete with Netflix (which incidentally also uses a red motif), Blockbuster offers its By Mail plans and OnDemand instant streaming; to compete with Coinstar's Redbox, Blockbuster has licensed its brand to rental kiosks company NCR Corp., which it first showed off Blockbuster rental machines more than one year ago and began deploying earlier in the summer. Like Redbox, DVD rentals from Blockbuster Express kiosks cost only $1 per night.
If you haven't seen one of these Blockbuster Express kiosks yet, it's because the only state which has a major deployment is Florida; but in the last two weeks, NCR has announced partnerships with national grocery store chains that expand their reach into Massachusetts, Connecticut, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. By the end of 2009, the company says there will be 2,500 kiosks up and running, and NCR will have invested more than $60 billion on the business.
Additionally, through NCR's acquisition of The New Release (TNR) in April, MovieCube rental kiosks will be converted into Blockbuster Express machines, adding coverage in even more local grocery stores across the country.
But one of the biggest reasons Redbox has attained dominance in the market is because it crossed the imaginary color barrier and aligned with major "blue team" US retailer Wal-Mart, which has more than 3,500 locations nationwide. Blockbuster could make a similar move and get kiosks installed in national "red team" retailer Target, which has more than 1300 locations in 47 US states.
I only know of one Redbox in my area, we mostly have DVD Play and they have Blu-ray.
Score: -1
|If Blockbuster kiosks added blu ray now that would kill Redbox. That said, wonder what Walmart will do with some of their blu boxes. Basically our local walmart colored the RedBox machine blue to match Walmart's color. Frankly I'd think Redbox would be peeved at that but oh well.
Score: -1
|I rather get my movies off bittorrent sites. ;)
..or eMule... Yes, it's slow (takes a few days..so you must be patient..movie wasn't filmed yesterday anyway geezzz) but you'll get movies that you can never EVER dream of getting on Netflix or BB... And I ain't talking about pr0n hehehe... Talking about RARE, REALLY GOOD STUFF.
Score: -6
|The lack of movie choices in their stores is what is killing Blockbuster and other DVD rental stores.
Blockbuster also screwed over the online rental customers when they played games with store trade ins and pricing.
Score: 0
|Blockbuster is always a day late and a dollar short. They've developed a knack for always copying someone else's business model, like they did a couple years ago with the Netflix model; unfortunately this did not work for them. Blockbuster needs to identify with may work for them, develop it and stick with it for the long haul, if they don't they will go the way of Circuit City.
Score: 0
|The other point missed is that blockbuster is closing app. 920 stores. I guess the cost of painting their stores blue was to much:)
Score: 0
|they really should just shed the rest of their stores (either close or sell off) and go fully online & kiosk. Thats the only way BB is going to survive.
Score: 0
|I cannot believe you missed the biggest of them all: Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi!
Sheesh...
Score: 0
|Psh...Dr. Pepper all the way! I live about 10 miles from a plant that uses Imperial Sugar in the DPs so life is good :).
Score: 0
|Perhaps they will someday gain ground in the rental kiosk market, however it seems today that they have lost significant ground in traditional retail store market: http://albany.bizjournal...2009/09/14/daily37.html
Score: 0
|