Blockbuster Continues Brilliant Moves – Buys Movielink
Posted by John Campeaon 09. 08. 2007in News Chat
For a while there it looked like Blockbuster was up against the ropes. Netflix was kicking all sorts of ass, and in the dawn of the digital online age, some people predicted the big corporation was about to enter its death bed. But hold on. Recently Blockbuster introduced its own “rent by mail” service… then added the ability for people to return those film to the physical stores if they wanted (reducing the turn around time for getting their new movies)… THEN they also added free in store rentals on top of your mail rentals if you returned a film in store. These solid moves dealt a serious blow to Netflix and started a resurgence for Blockbuster.
Well… looks like Blockbuster wasn’t finished. They just made another slick and solid move. They just bought movie download service Movielink. Yahoo News gives us this:
Movielink was launched by five studios in 2002, marking the first time that a large supply of recent, popular films was available for rental on the Internet. The privately held service has struggled to gain popularity, even as it allowed the purchase of films and signed licensing agreements with all major studios and a large number of independent film companies.
“Our acquisition of Movielink, with its associated digital content, is the next logical step in our planned transformation of Blockbuster,” chairman and chief executive Jim Keyes said in a statement. “Now, in addition to the entertainment content we provide through our stores and by mail, we have taken an important step toward being able to make movie downloading conveniently available to computers, portable devices and ultimately to the television at home,” he said.
In Canada, you can’t get either Blockbuster’s or Netflix’s services, so I have no first hand experience with either one. All I can say is that Blockbuster is making some very good moves, and I just don’t see how Netflix will compete with them long term unless they also start introducing some new moves. We’ll see. One thing is for certain… major battles between big services is always good for the consumers. Battle on!
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But doesn’t Netflix already have this covered with their online movie streaming?
Either way, I’ll never go back to Blockbuster. Their customer service has always been wretched, and their movie selection leaves too much to be desired…
I’m a BB Online subscriber, I know netflix had this feature a while ago, and even if BB is going serve up movies online, i doubt many people will want to watch a movie on their computer monitor, not to mention the time its going to take to cache or DL the film. BB isn’t going to gain too much out of this.
BLOCKBUSTER certainly is moving in the right direction to win the video rental battle. I use BLOCKBUSTER, it just seems like the smarter move. It’s gotten so easy now, since i get the movies in the mail and when i return them i get free ones from BLOCKBUSTER. The selection in the store doesn’t bother me, i usually get the harder to find ones on the internet and the new releases for free in the store. So now i hear about this internet thing!!! i am so glad i choose blockbuster. Oh almost forgot, about once or twice a month, being an online-rental member, you get free movie coupons sent to your e-mail adress, so I can walk into the store and get 4-5 movies with out even spending a dollar, now can netflicks do that???
I currently own Netflix. Netflix has never let me down for the year or so I have had them. However, their online movie database is a complete pile of shit. There isn’t too much on their that really is worth watching. Usually I’ll put on some obscure movie on at night that I have never heard of and fall asleep to it. If blockbuster is able to create a good online collection I might consider switching.
Terrific stuff. I tried lovefilm once, and good idea that it was, it was still a pain in the arse, waiting for the post and shit. Might switch to Blockbuster now.
Thanks Gi.
It’s obvious John has a hard-on for Blockbuster. It’s too bad Blockbuster is hemriging money big time and will absolutely fail if the keep the current business model.
In any case the future of both companies don’t bright because once IPTV is established the studios will cut the out of the picture.
If I only wanted cookie-cutter films and was willing to submit to what an anonymous corporation could tell me I could or couldn’t watch – I’d go with Blockbuster. Their “swap in store” program doesn’t really mean much to me and frankly isn’t enough of a bonus to deal with their conglomerate mentality and complete crap customer service.
Personally, I’m with Netflix. Have been for since October 2003 and will be for a long time.
Hey John in Seattle, you said:
“If I only wanted cookie-cutter films and was willing to submit to what an anonymous corporation could tell me I could or couldn’t watch – I’d go with Blockbuster.”
Could you clarify what that means exactly? I don’t think Blockbuster tells you what to watch do they? Don’t you pick the movies yourself? I do. And don’t give me the BB edits their movies, because they DO NOT. Just curious.
I also get double the number of movies for the same price that Netflix offers.
Drew, you are telling me Block Buster
As a BB Total Access user I’m excited by this news. I’ve had no problem with BB so far, and I’m quite happy with it. I’ve never used Netflix so I really couldn’t compare the two.
I just hope neither one of these companies does “exclusive” only movie deals. I’m still with Hollywood Video and it doesn’t hurt me to stop in for a few minutes. I usually have my wife and five year old kid with me.
We usually walk out with what we want.
What I mean is that BB’s policy is that they refuse to stock any film that is NC-17 or unrated because it might tarnish their precious “family friendly” reputation.
I don’t appreciate any store that supposedly caters to a wide market purposely censoring what they will stock simply based on a letter combination – with no regards to content or subject matter. That leads to corporations telling the public what they can or cannot do or see – a decision that belongs with the consumers of that media and the parents of any interested minors.
This was the case when I cancelled my BB membership years ago and frankly, haven’t gone back to look. The policy was indicative of a culture in the company, one that I do not wish to support.
Of course, while they would not stock any NC-17 movies so rated due to “sexuality” – they don’t hesitate to stock 800 copies of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit videos… the hypocrisy leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I had heard about Blockbuster only buying “edited-for-content” versions of movies from the studios before, as well their no NC-17 policy. I decided to look into this, because I will not support that kind of censorship. My money, my video choice. I went to Blockbuster online, however, and found quite a few NC-17 titles available for both rental and purchase. You can also search for movies available in Blockbuster stores, and all the movies I checked came up as available (in my area anyway).
For anyone interested, I checked:
Where the Truth Lies
Inside Deep Throat
Last Tango in Paris
Requeim for a Dream (listed as NR)
Trois