Blockbuster Launches Download Device, Faces Taught Competition
Blockbuster, the largest chain of DVD and video game rental stores in the world has showed again its aggressive marketing strategy (which can, however, turn into a flop) by entering on Tuesday the set-top box market with the MediaPoint digital media player.
Blockbuster’s device is promoted as part of a more attractive pricing plan than the Roku – it’s priced $99, but it also throws in 25 movie downloads to go along (for additional movies customers will pay as much as $3.99 a flick).
According to Blockbuster, there will be a library of about 2,500 movies available for the customers to choose from, with new releases playing a major role. Customers will have the possibility to watch the films immediately or save them for later, and complete their viewing within 24 hours.
To use the service, customers will need to connect their MediaPoint box to the Internet, through Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and then their device will be able to store up to five feature-length films at any one time. MediaPoint comes with full playback capabilities, including the ability to pause, rewind and fast-forward movies. The company also assures users that all films will be DVD-quality, no matter the speed of the internet connection used.
"We are bringing Blockbuster, and the thousands of movies in our digital library, straight to customers' televisions," Jim Keyes, chairman and chief executive of Blockbuster declared. "The player is simple to use, delivers DVD quality video, and there's no monthly subscription commitment."
However, Blockbuster will sure have a lot of competition on this market, especially being new to this game. So, there’s Netflix, which enables movie fans to download film rentals from its library of about 12,000 films to their Xbox 360 games console, TiVo personal video recorder or Roku set-top box, then there’s Vudu and Apple which also offers movie downloads and rentals straight to televisions via its Apple TV device.
Here’s a list of this sort of services and their features posted by Dallas News:
BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO
Selection: 2,000 movies
Equipment: 2Wire MediaPoint digital media player
Cost: The player comes free with 25 rentals. Rentals are $1.99 to $3.99.
Service unveiled: November 2008
NETFLIX
Selection: 12,000 movies and TV shows
Equipment: Roku set-top box, TiVo HD, Xbox 360 and some Blu-ray players
Cost: The players cost $100 and up. Movies are free for Netflix subscribers.
Service unveiled: May 2008
ITUNES
Selection: More than 20,000 movies and TV shows
Equipment: Apple TV box
Cost: $229 or $329 for the box. $1.99 to $4.99 for rentals.
Service unveiled: January 2008
AMAZON.COM
Selection: More than 20,000 movies and TV shows
Equipment: TiVo or computer-to-TV connection
Cost: TiVos start at $150. Rentals range from $1.99 to $3.99.
Service unveiled: September 2006
