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  • Dish Taking Over Blockbuster Leases, Will Maintain Physical Stores

    John Biggs

    Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

    Tuesday, April 19th, 2011


    According to an AP report, Dish Networks, the soon-to-be new owner of Blockbuster, is keeping the leases on 500 of Blockbuster’s physical stores. The reasoning, while on the surface inscrutable, will give Dish a physical presence and allow it access to Blockbuster’s assets and brand to sell its own satellite TV service to consumers.

    Dish finalized the sale this month and signed the papers to maintain the stores last week. It bought the beleaguered video rental chain for $228 million, giving Dish access to Blockbuster’s limited assets as well as all branding.

    via USAToday