Blockbuster Not Giving Up Rental Market Without a Fight
By Alexander Grundner |
November 9th, 2007
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Blockbuster has been getting a lot negative press lately because the company’s financials have been looking bleaker and bleaker every quarter. Well, folks, all that is going to change, according to Blockbuster Inc. chief executive (and former 7-Eleven CEO) Jim Keyes. In a recent interview, Keyes states the company will conduct the following initiatives:
- Stocking more new-release DVDs for sale on the rental wall.
- Adding more electronic hardware to the merchandise mix, including iPods and a Disney portable DVD player for children.
- Selling the PlayStation 3, bundled with Blu-ray movies, out of a Sony-built display area in 2,000 stores.
- Offering movies preloaded on flash drives for convenient viewing on PCs or laptops on a jetliner.
- Selling more gift cards.
- Marketing on Facebook.
Next year, the company will focus on technology and the in-store experience by:
- Offering online DVD downloads from a new Blockbuster.com site merged with that of Movielink, which Blockbuster recently acquired.
- Testing kiosks in stores that burn DVDs and download movies onto flash drives while you wait.
- Testing DVD vending machines such as Redbox.
- Testing stores with a cold beverage bar and lounge, children’s play areas and a technology center.
What do you guys think? Smart moves or a waste of time. Personally, I think the strategy is brilliant. I’d love to see the stores being put to better use (i.e. tech showcases, new content distribution methods) and see their newly acquired Movielink arm get moving on a massive scale – hopefully not just direct to Windows PC downloads (I’d love to see a cross-platform PC solution (via Adobe AIR/Microsoft Sliverlight?) and direct to media adapters/extenders/cable set-tops movie streaming option as well).
Disclaimer: I hold no shares in Blockbuster or Netflix stock, but have been a happy long-time subscriber of Blockbuster Online for the past 2-3 years. (I wish other bloggers/journalists/analysts would follow this example of transparency when reporting positively or negatively on a company.)
Greg Wishart – 38 minutes 35 seconds ago