Blockbuster rolling out rental kiosks
Blockbuster will be entering the video rental kiosk fray with 50 units this quarter. The video rental industry is moving quickly away from the brick and mortar retail shop and towards by-mail and kiosk rentals, as well as digital delivery.
The video rental chain has been struggling to stay alive with the change in the industry. They even tried buying Circuit City. Now they’re joining the kiosk market full force. Blockbuster joined with NCR earlier this year on this kiosk venture and are planning on installing 10,000 units over the next 18 months.
Clearly Blockbuster is throwing their full weight behind this venture. The biggest competitor in this market is Redbox, and they have only 6,000 units installed so far. Of course Blockbuster is spinning this move suggesting it’s just part of their larger plan, but the brick and mortar rental store is dead in the water. Movie Gallery is practically dead, and even Blockbuster is shutting down stores across the country.
Of course our friendly analyst (not to be confused with analrapist) Rob Enderle thinks the kiosk won’t replace the retail store. Since he was so very wrong on the format war, I’ll just chalk this one up to another case of corporate shilling.
Source: Home Media Magazine
