Disney is reportedly considering imposing a 28-day delay between DVD or Blu-ray movie releases and availability through rental chains such as Netflix and Redbox. The company's chief executive, Bob Iger, noted the potential strategy change during a quarterly conference call with investors and analysts.
Redbox finished Monday by acquiring NCR's entertainment division. The $100 million move would see it buy NCR's 35,000 disc kiosks, usually attached to Blockbuster Express, as well as retailer deals and discs themselves. As part of the swap, Redbox's parent company Coinstar will get software and services that will ultimately make a $25 million profit for NCR.
Redbox and Verizon started the week with word of creating an all-encompassing movie service. The strategy would see Verizon provide movie downloads and streaming while Redbox supplied new Blu-ray and DVD discs to rent. While details were short, it would have subscriptions "and more," all while making sure viewers had access on the "media and devices they prefer."
Disagreements between Redbox and Warner Bros. may have inadvertently benefited viewers after a deal between the two expired Tuesday. Redbox will now have to buy Blu-ray and DVD discs from retail to stock its catalog rather than at a lower price from Warner, but it will no longer face the 28-day delay instituted by Warner to try and shelter traditional rentals and sales. Warner earlier in the month had started insisting on an even longer 56-day delay that likely pushed Redbox into the more expensive but much faster arrangement.
Corroborating earlier reports, Warner Brothers is said to be set to extend the delay time for movie availability through streaming providers or DVD rental outlets. Customers will now have to wait 56 days from the start of DVD sales before titles will arrive through streaming channels or disc rentals, essentially doubling the window from the current period of 28 days.
Warner Brothers has reportedly imposed a 28-day delay for DVDs headed to Blockbuster's rental locations. The studio appears to be following the same strategy with Blockbuster rentals as it has maintained with other players such as Redbox and Netflix, which also face the same month-long window between DVD sales and rental availability.
Redbox has announced that its DVD rental service soon will cost customers $1.20 per day, marking a 20 percent price jump from the current rate of just $1.00 per day. Parent company Coinstar blamed the fee hike on an "increase in operating expenses, including the recent increase in debit card interchange fees as a result of the Durbin Amendment."
Redbox has made good on its promise to bring $2 video game rentals to its self-service kiosks by announcing the service will kick off on Friday, June 17. Game rentals will be available at all 21,000 Redbox locations and include popular and fairly new gaming titles for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles. Some of the newer available titles include LA Noire,Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, Infamous 2 and Brink.
Blockbuster, which recently sold to Dish, has now revealed that it has lowered retail, in-store rental prices of DVDs as of May 27. Old titles will cost 99 cents per day, new releases have dropped to $1.99 for the first day, and just-released films now cost $2.99. Each additional day costs 99 cents.
Redbox, which currently offers Blu-ray and DVD movie rentals from self-service kiosks in stores, announced it will also begin renting games in June. The scheme was experimented with last year in limited locations. It will charge $2 per day for games in addition to its current offering or $1 per day for DVDs and $1.50 for Blu-ray discs.
A bankruptcy court judge on Thursday gave approval to Dish's buyout of Blockbuster. The clearance for the $320 million deal was needed before the two could complete the deal, which has now been narrowed down from spring to April 25. Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes said he was happy with the deal, in part since Dish would keep business mostly intact and take over many leases and the on-the-spot DVD rental kiosks.
Zediva, a video rental company based in Sunnyvale California has launched an online movie rental service for new release movies. For as little as $1, users can instantly watch movies wherever they have access to an internet connection. Zediva is offering users who sign up before March 31, two free rentals. Zediva claim that they will deliver new release movies online, weeks before similar titles become available online through Netflix or Redbox, as they will not withhold the online viewing option on new release DVDs as Netflix and Redbox do.
Redbox at an analyst presentation said its tentative movie streaming would follow the subscription model. In confirming the plans, President Mitch Lowe said it would follow a strategy similar to Netflix, where members would get the Internet streaming along with access to physical copies. Redbox wouldn't mail discs but would instead give access through kiosks.
Blockbuster plans to close another 182 stores in the next few months according to a report. The move is part of a restructure designed to return the company to profitability under the protection of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which it filed for in September. The latest closures come after the once dominant DVD rental giant also shuttered more than 2,000 stores over the past two years.
Blockbuster on Friday said that its Express kiosks would have to wait 28 days before getting new movies from Warner Bros. to rent. Despite having trialed same-day launches as recently as the past few weeks, such as Fox's Knight and Day, the company has agreed to stall the $1 DVDs in return for closer contact with Warner Bros. as well as a lower distribution cost and healthier supply. It already had similar deals with Fox and Universal.
Movie kiosk operator Redbox has confirmed in a conference call late this week that it's planning to offer Internet movie streaming in 2011. The CEO of parent company Coinstar, Paul Davis, explained that there were talks with a "number of highly interested parties" hoping to start a Redbox Internet service in 2011. Physical rentals were still to be a core feature, but Internet video was a "significant opportunity," Davis said.
Best known for its $1 DVD rentals, Redbox today confirmed rumors of an Internet movie service. The company's president Mitch Lowe promised to Bloomberg that details would come in October and promised that it would be an extension of the service, achieving things that the company "can’t do in [its] kiosks."
Paramount bucked the trend to major resistance towards non-traditional movie rentals by striking a same-day deal with Redbox. Under the terms, both Blu-ray and DVD movies will be available through the on-the-spot kiosks the same day as they're available to rent elsewhere. The movie studio rejected the fears that have led Warner Bros. and other studios to try and force 28-day delays, arguing that there's ultimately no impact to giving RedBox $1 rentals at the same time.
The pioneer of the movie rental kiosk, Redbox, is considering starting a very low cost Internet video streaming service based on the contents of a recent survey. As proposed, it would cost just $4 per month for unlimited online viewing and would still include four of the normally $1 DVD rentals as part of the plan. Which platforms would get the service weren't part of the study.
Netflix today said it had struck a deal with Warner Bros. to keep receiving new release movies. Under the terms, Blu-ray and DVD movies will only reach Netflix four weeks after they're first available at physical stores. In exchange, Netflix rights to Warner's movies for its Watch Instantly streaming feature and should see the movie catalog expand significantly beyond its current levels.
Rental chain Blockbuster Video will close between 810 and 960 stores by the end of 2010, an SEC filing reveals. While putting a significant number of people out of work, and closing off some markets, the move is expected to add another $50 to $60 million to annual earnings before expenses like taxes and interest. The company has over 7,000 stores worldwide at present, scattered across Asia, Europe, the US and Australia.
