Netflix To Offer Streaming Only Plan This Year?

As Netflix continues its domination of the rental world, CEO Reed Hastings made an interesting statement during his companies Q4 financial results. “Three years ago we were a DVD-by-mail company that offered some streaming. We are now a streaming company, which also offers DVD-by-mail.”. This statement alone is the reason why Blockbuster will go the way of the Dodo bird. Not only did Netflix come up with way to beat Blockbuster at its own game (movies by mail), but by thinking forward with streaming, they're set up to push them out of existence.

With Netflix recently expanding to Canada, there have be talks that U.S. customers may be offered streaming only service sometime later this year. So if you're not interested in getting DVD's or Blu Ray movies by mail and only want the streaming service, you may not have to wait very long.

This week Netflix and Apple served notice that physical media is (almost) dead!!!

[Engadget]

Epic Fail: Rumor Of Blockbuster Filing Bankruptcy In September

Even though Blockbuster was said to be one of the companies to disappear in 2011, I just didn't think that the end would be so close. Well rumor has it that the once Behemoth movie rental company will file for bankruptcy next month. And it seems that these rumors have legs, as a meeting was said to have taken place between six of the major movie houses and Blockbuster to alert them of the filing next month.

Obviously a bankruptcy filing doesn't mean that a company is going bye bye, but it does make it clear that Blockbuster is in trouble. Blockbuster is said to be on track to close 500 more stores adding to the 1000 that were closed last year. Unless Blockbuster does some serious restructuring of their business plan, the mid-September filing will not help them. The problem is that Blockbuster continued to operate with an old antiquated system which made them a lot of money at one time. But the refusal to change how they operated (until it was too late) along with the Netflix tsunami, Blockbuster stayed on a collision course with Bankruptcy.

So now Blockbuster will try to pick themselves off the floor with a stronger push in the mail-order and digital rentals. Will they have the ability to restructure themselves during the bankruptcy to become a viable business, only time will tell......

But the smart money says no!!!

[Gizmodo]

In-Store Movie Downloading Kiosks Coming To Blockbuster

I know that this seems to be "beat up on Blockbuster" week, but they're providing all the ammo needed. This time with the announcement of their 'In-Store downloading Kiosks', that will be installed in all of there Brick and Mortar stores. The idea is that you can bring in your portable media player, plug-in and download a movie. The only problem with it is that most people already have something like that at home, it's called a computer.

Why would anyone get up out of the comfort of their home to drive to Blockbuster, just to download a movie on an ipod? Most of those features are available on the Internet, so what would be the point? If I walk into Blockbuster, why wouldn't I just get a dvd to watch a movie on a larger screen than an ipod? It seems that whom ever is making the decisions at Blockbuster really doesn't get it, or possibly could be completely out of touch with what the consumer wants.

If this is really part of their big "revival" plan, they might be gone sooner than even I thought.

[Gizmodo]

Blockbuster Scales Back 'Total Access'

When I talked how Blockbuster may be closing their doors soon, people (some from this very blog) felt that this might have been an over reaction on my part and by the tech analyst from CNet who wrote the article. Well hot on the heals of that story, Blockbuster has cut back on their Total Access plan. This is the on-line plan that allowed customers to rent movies on-line, and return the mailed movies to a near-by Blockbuster for a new movie.

The problem is that it cost Blockbuster big bucks to do this, hence the changes to the program. Now it will cost an extra $7 more a month for the unlimited in-store returns, in addition they plan on cutting in half all TV and in store advertising for the program. This doesn't sound like a company ready to compete in the digital world, in fact, it sounds like they're going backwards.

This company is going the way of the dodo bird.

Blockbuster dials back on Total Access after mail-order bloodbath [ArsTechnica via G4TV]

Blockbuster Finished?

I remember when I was a kid, and all I wanted to do was rent movies that I loved, and Blockbuster was the drug dealer for my junkie needs. I really remember when I forgot to return a movie that I had for two weeks (back then, you only had a day to view a movie), and they hit me up for a $50 late fees (that's a lot of money to an 18 year old). I've never liked the smugness that Blockbuster had, as they were the biggest video bullies in town. So hearing that this company is on the ropes made me laugh my evil laugh. They have no one to blame but themselves for this, by not recognizing (or taken seriously) the on-line market that 'Netflix' took advantage of.

Their old corporate ways and the lack to change them has doomed this company. They've already closed over 500 stores in the past year, and according to their third quarter results, had a net loss of $35 million. While this is still a billion dollar revenue company, their decision not to focus on their on-line Total Access membership, and concentrate on overall membership from brick and mortar stores may have put them in the grave. And while the demise of the company hasn't been decided, free lance technology writer Don Reisinger thinks they will close their doors within two years.

Night Night Blockbuster.... I knew ye all too well!

Say goodbye to Blockbuster [C|Net via Crunchgear]

Superbad Is Once Again #1

The raunchy teen movie Superbad has taken the number 1 spot again this week, being the first movie since 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' to win back to back weekends. But what I find most funny is that 'Mr. Bean's Holiday' beat out Jet Li's 'War', man that's got to suck. Here are the rest of the standings courtesy of Mania:

Rank	Movie	Weekend $	Theaters	Average	Total $
1	Superbad	18.0 mil	2,948	$6,105	68.5 mil
2	The Bourne Ultimatum	12.3 mil	3,679	$3,359	185.1 mil
3	Rush Hour 3	12.2 mil	3,408	$3,594	109.0 mil
4	Mr. Bean’s Holiday	10.1 mil	1,714	$5,904	10.1 mil
5	WAR	10.0 mil	2,277	$4,391	10.0 mil
6	The Nanny Diaries	7.8 mil	2,629	$2,971	7.8 mil
7	The Simpsons Movie	4.4 mil	2,600	$1,692	173.4 mil
8	Stardust	3.9 mil	2,339	$1,690	26.4 mil
9	Hairspray	3.4 mil	2,016	$1,711	107.4 mil
10	The Invasion	3.1 mil	2,776	$1,131	11.5 mil

Blockbuster Buys Movielink

Blockbuster is taking major steps to step on Netflix's neck!!!

With the purchase of Movielink, Blockbuster is in position to put Netflix in a bind. Netflix had held a trump card against Blockbusters on-line store simply because they had VOD service that Blockbuster couldn't match. That all may have changed with the purchase of Movielink, which will give Blockbuster more than 3300 titles for VOD. Netflix sill has more VODs, but this may level the playing field a little more.

No word on how much Blockbuster paid for Movielink, but rumor has it at just under $50 million. I think this war should be settled by Mortal Kombat once and for all, with our VOD souls going to the winner.

Check it out here. [NYT via Gizmodo]

Blu-Ray Wins: Oh, wait....

When BlockBuster made their announcement that all of their brick and mortar stores would be going to Blu-Ray exclusively, the thought was that HD-DVD was finished.

Customers were canceling their orders for HD-DVD players left and right, thinking that the war was over. Not so fast!!!

Ken Graffeo, Executive Vice President of High Definition Strategic Marketing for Universal, brushed off the idea that this was the end of HD-DVD. Ken stated that rentals only make up less than 1% of the revenue that HD-DVD generates, and that BlockBuster's on-line stores still continue to rent HD-DVD. He also stated that with the on-line content and interactive features gives HD-DVD an advantage over Blu-Ray.

I still believe that price of the players and format will determine who will truly win this war.

Check out the rest after the jump. [Trusted Reviews via Crunchgear]

Blockbuster's Blu-ray Endorsement Having Major Impact on HD DVD Player Sales

It looks like the decision for BlockBuster to only carry Blu-Ray DVD's have had a bigger impact than it seems.

The kicker? It's all because of BlockBuster!

With the announcement of the major video suppliers decision, the sales for HD-DVD players have taken a big hit. A tipster at an unnamed retailer tells us they've had more HD-DVD player orders canceled over the last few days than they've seen over the entire life cycle. The kicker? All of them were canceled because of the Blockbuster announcement.

The new HD-DVD player sales are now nonexistent, with the Blu-Ray player being the only thing moving now.

Blockbluster Bravely Backs Blu-ray

Looks like Blu-ray is beginning to honestly win the format war. Now Blockbuster is choosing sides and the company seems to favor Blu-ray over HD DVD.

Blockbuster just announced it would begin carrying more high-def discs in 1700 stores by mid-July. According to reports, Blockbuster is saying that Blu-ray is “significantly outpacing HD DVD rentals”, which could possibly lead to the pulling of HD DVDs off its shelves. For now though, Blockbuster online rental subscribers can still get their fix of both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

HD-DVD seriously needs to pull out some big guns!!!

Of course all of this war stuff could hit a snag if the market turns to downloaded media. Which really is the future of movies.

Read the article after the jump. [Yahoo! News]