Posted on

Bye Bye Blockbuster: Closing All Stores by Early 2014

blockbusterDish Network, who operates around 300 of the Blockbuster stores announced today that it will close all of the video rental chain’s remaining U.S. stores, as well as it’s DVD by mail business by early 2014 attributing the move to more consumers switching to streaming and other digital alternatives.

“This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment,” said Joseph P. Clayton, Dish president and CEO. “Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings.”

However, stores that operate as licensed franchises will be able to remain open and operate under the Blockbuster name. Blockbuster by mail will end in December.

This move probably makes Netflix, Amazon and Redbox very happy, and we suppose they will be offering specials soon to gather up as much of the old Blockbuster customers as they can. Were you a Blockbuster Subscriber, in store or by mail? Will you switch to another provider? If so, which one? Let us know in the comments below!

Posted on

Choices, Coming to a TV Near You

Netflix has made some terrible mistakes in the past year. First it was the idea to separate the DVD service from the streaming (with a huge price hike), then the announcement they will be splitting out the DVD and streaming companies all together, then changing their mind on that, then relegating streaming users to only one stream at a time, then saying that it was an error on their end and they weren’t doing it, THEN actually (lately) rolling out the one stream at a time thing slowly without much fanfare thinking there would be less of an uproar that way. We reported on that last month here:  Netflix: N8107-154-5006 Back to One Stream at a Time.

Their loss is another companies gain. Apparently, Amazon is real close to cutting a deal with Viacom for their programming as well as offering a stand alone streaming subscription for customers without Amazon Prime. The announcement and program may come as early as this week. Amazon has already cut some deals with some other major TV providers such as  CBS Corp, Warner Bros, Fox, Sony Corp, NBC Universal and Walt Disney Co. Viacom is the last of their building block to offer the subscription service with likely more deals with networks to come.

Amazon, in addition to it’s Prime Video library (and soon to come subscription service) also has a rental library similar to iTunes already, which boasts some big name newer movies. The subscription service would round them out to be a huge player in the streaming world and most definitely provide the biggest competition to Netflix to date.

Verizon is also jumping into the streaming game. Just announced this week, Verizon will be teaming up with RedBox to offer streaming subscriptions for content as well. No word yet on what deals they have made with content providers. Verizon says they should be up and running with RedBox in the second half of this year.

What will Netflix do, if anything? Netflix has been on quite a bumpy road lately and appears to be making some very bad decisions, at least where customers are concerned. So bad that it almost seems as if they are trying to go out of business. Are they? Who knows. I will say for me, who has both Netflix and Amazon Prime as well as occasionally use Redbox, I am liking more choices stepping forward. Maybe we can have more deals floating around. Maybe Amazon will be able to offer their newer movie rentals for less… like the price of a RedBox rental perhaps? All the choices coming can only add up to a good thing for us consumers.

What do you think? Do you use Amazon Prime already? Do you like their service? Looking forward to more choices all around? Sound off below!