Dish Network has the answer to Netflix: Blockbuster. The company bought the bankrupt Blockbuster six months ago at auction for $228 million and apparently wasted no time integrating Blockbuster’s current streaming service into Dish’s satellite TV plans. The Blockbuster Movie Pass is a complete media rental service and features streaming movies and TV shows along with movies and games-by-mail. But don’t cancel your Netflix streaming account just yet. → Read More
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. → Read More
I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t taken some delight in watching the complete and utter collapse of Blockbuster.
You see, back when I was a child, our community had a couple of thriving local video stores that were the source of pretty much endless enjoyment for me. Then Blockbuster came along. By then, the company was already a mega-chain of blue and gold awnings that decorated much of the country. They had inventory that simply could not be matched. Unsurprisingly, they crushed the local video stores.
This happened all over the country for years. Goliath didn’t just beat David, he obliterated him simply by showing up — and then danced on his grave while entertaining his children. → Read More
DISH Network this morning announced that it was selected as the winning bidder in the bankruptcy court auction for substantially all of the assets of Blockbuster, which went belly up in September 2010.
DISH’s winning bid was valued at approximately $320 million, but after adjustments for available cash and inventory and others, the company expects to end up paying approximately $228 million in cash to acquire Blockbuster. → Read More
It is nearly the end of the road for Blockbuster as we know it. The company has put itself up for auction and is accepting bids higher than “stalking horse” Cobalt Video Holdco bid of $290 million. The plan, then would be to accept a higher offer from any potential bidders or sell the assets to Cobalt.
What will you get for your $290 million? → Read More
It’s come to this: the success of Netflix and Redbox in the United States have driven Blockbuster, as expected, to file for bankruptcy protection after failing to adequately and swiftly adapt its movie-rental model from physical storefronts to mail-order and online technology pioneered by its aforementioned competitors.
The company filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, listing assets of $1.02 billion and debt of $1.46 billion. The company’s largest trade creditor is Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment with a $21.6 million claim, according to today’s filing.
The news, first reported by Bloomberg, comes almost 25 years after Blockbuster opened its first store (Dallas, Texas on October 26, 1985). → Read More
Blockbuster is about to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will close up to 800 stores. According to the WSJ, the move would wipe out Blockbuster’s debt and leave the company ready to take on the online market. → Read More
Like John Henry dying at his hammer, Blockbuster is just about ready to stop being a steel-driving man. According to the LA Times, the company could file for bankruptcy as soon as September in a move, while dire, doesn’t specifically mean the end of the company. → Read More
Now why would a cable company that handles pay per view movies and programming team up with a video store? I have no idea. But for whatever reason (perhaps desperation?) Comcast has joined forces with Blockbuster to deliver DVDs by mail. You’d think Comcast would just deliver the content via their high speed internet feeds, or receiver based delivery systems. Perhaps this is just a marketing scheme by Blockbuster to try and prop up their now archaic and failing business model. Only time will tell. [via Zatz Not Funny] → Read More
Only weeks after Blockbuster signed a deal with Warner, the company has signed new agreements with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. It appears that the deals with the two studios companies will be similar to the Warner deal, which ensured that studio’s new titles would be available in Blockbuster stores and by mail the day they are released on DVD.
Additionally, Blockbuster will get favorable payments terms from the studios in return for a lien on some assets involving Blockbuster Canada. So basically Blockbuster is giving them Blockbuster Canada until it pays back some loan or reverts to the normal payment terms → Read More
When’s the last time you were at a Blockbuster?
For me, it’s been a few years. And it’s been several years since I was going regularly. And I was only doing that because the then-Viacom-backed-giant drove the mom and pop video stores out of business in my community. I have no desire to ever step into a Blockbuster store ever again. But Warner Bros. sure wants me to.
Today, Blockbuster announced it has reached a deal with Warner Bros. to ensure the studio’s new titles would be available in Blockbuster stores and by mail the day they are released on DVD. This is significant because Warner recently negotiated deals with Blockbuster rivals Netflix and Redbox to give them such access only after the movies have been available to purchase on DVD for 28 days. In other words, Warner just screwed Netflix and Redbox. → Read More
A new movie came out on DVD this week called The Invention Of Lying. It’s co-written, co-directed, and co-starring Golden Globe host Ricky Gervais and looks mildly entertaining enough that I want to rent it. So I load up Netflix to add it to my queue — but wait, according to Netflix, it’s not available until February 16. Why? Because it’s a Warner movie and as such is subject to Netflix’s idiotic new 28-day rule (they can’t rent Warner new releases on Netflix until after they’ve been available for purchase in retail store for 28 days). Well that’s just great. So all hope is lost, right? Nope. iTunes has it available for rent today.
Because Apple did not agree to enter into a deal with Hollywood that restricts them from renting movies during this 28-day window, it was available not only to buy but also to rent this past Tuesday on iTunes, the same day it was released on DVD. While iTunes has its own series of somewhat convoluted rules with regard to rentals (for example, some movies are restricted from being rented when airing on premium cable channels like HBO), in this instance, they hands down beat Netflix at their own game: rentals. And thanks to this new 28-day window, which the other major studios will undoubtedly have interest in getting from Netflix as well, this is something we could see a lot more of: iTunes, Amazon, Xbox Live, and yes, even Blockbuster Online being the go-to sources to rent new releases. → Read More
Good news in the lawsuit against Netflix and Blockbuster; the legal system for the great state of California has judged that the rental queue patent was not violated! → Read More
Look at this. It was just yesterday that we learned about the Blockbuster Express DVD kiosks that will be invading NYC shortly and there is already a deal for the rentals. You can get two DVDs for only $1. That’s, well, cheap. → Read More
Look out, NYC. Blockbuster is getting ready to roll out 200 Blockbuster Express DVD rental kiosks in New York City. Why you ask? Well, according to the WSJ report, NYC is a Redbox weak spot with only three kiosks in the entire city while there are more than 20,000 nationwide. But just like the original DVD rental kiosk, Redbox, Blockbuster Express offers first run movies (which the movie studio’s don’t get any rental revenue from) for only $1. → Read More
Blockbuster, observing the popularity of services like RedBox (a DVD rental kiosk), has decided they’re going to skip a step and start offering movie rentals that come on an SD card. The new kiosks would load a DRMed movie onto your own SD card, and the content will expire after X viewings or days. They’re hoping that the better quality of the movies (vs. streaming ones or regular DVD) will bring users back. You might have picked a format that’s actually supported by media devices, guys. → Read More
Back in August, we wrote about the Hollywood movie studios conspiring to keep new release DVDs away from services like Netflix and Redbox for as many as 30 days after their release. The idea behind this from Hollywood’s perspective is simple: If people can’t rent movies right away, they’ll buy more. Sorry, did I say the idea was “simple”? I meant, “idiotic”.
At the time, it was reported that Blockbuster, the former video giant that is aging anything but gracefully, was also backing this 30-day window idea (where it might see a 30-day rental exclusive on some titles). With the company bleeding money, it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re aligning themselves with the studios. But more recently, there has been some very disheartening news: Netflix seems to be willing to back this idea too. Yes, the poster child for much of what is right about the consumer movie business these days may be on the verge of making a deal with the devil. → Read More
TiVo users have known that Blockbuster On Demand was coming to TiVo for a while, but the service just went live. So, does it have the goods to put up a fight against Netflix or Amazon On Demand that have been streaming content on TiVos for months already? Nope, not at all. → Read More
Don’t look now, but your Series 2, 3, or HD TiVo is probably getting the Blockbuster On Demand update right now. Actually, go look now because while I couldn’t get a picture to show this accurately, the screen above looks slightly different than other TiVo screens. It’s tad higher resolution and there is just something different about it. Maybe a TiVo GUI refresh is just around the corner… → Read More
TiVo users! Rejoice! Soon you’ll have access to Blockbuster On Demand content as if Amazon, Netflix, Walt Disney Studios, and Jaman services weren’t enough. I hear that sometime today, the service will go live on Series 2, 3, HD, and HD XL boxes but so far it isn’t up on either my HD or HD XL units. Not that it matters all that much. I’m not going to use it anyway. → Read More
