It's not tough to say what ails
Blockbuster, but it's incredibly hard to see what will turn it around. As the world at large
decided to pass up renting from brick-and-mortar locations in favor of by-mail renting or digital downloads, Blockbuster remains stuck in 1983. We already
had a clue that it may be jacking rates up further to help with near-term financials, and now those increases are all but set in stone. CFO Thomas Casey noted at a conference in Santa Monica that it would be focusing on "boosting rental prices over broadening its digital delivery service," which is quite amazing given that the outfit just pumped out its own movie set-top-box
not two months ago. Oh sure, digital delivery is a much smaller market than the DVD rental sector, but how exactly does Blockbuster plan on raking in revenue with higher prices? It's not like it's about to undercut Netflix.
[Image courtesy of
Wired]
posted Dec 19th 2008 9:24AM
The Blockbuster CFO must not have gotten the memo that...
WE'RE IN A FREAKIN RECESSION!!!
Not exactly the best time to *raise* prices.
CFO Thomas Casey must have failed his High School Economics class.
I have not been to Block Buster for a long time now. But i remember I felt like they prices were WAY to high already. I think i rented 1 new release and it was around ~$5 for 1 night (this was before i got my blu ray player)
I felt ripped off. Hell, for $20 i could buy the new release on DVD. This is when i started up Netflix again. Now i pay $6 for two movies a month!
If they raise prices and dont find away to improve service or trim the fat this is just one more step to Chapter 11.
Mitchell
Up until a few weeks ago I was a staunch supporter of blockbuster online. I loved getting movies in the mail, watch 'em, trade 'em in for another at the store and repeat. Then they raised prices and put a limit on how many you could trade in at the store per month. I bailed when the price went from $15 for 3-at-a-time and unlimited trades to $19 for 2-at-a-time and only 5 trades per month. Maybe they're trying to run their business into the ground to get a piece of that bailout action.
Mitch ... u were not grandfathered in ? .. yeah my prices went to $21.00 a month but i still get unlimited movies to trade in and 2 free game retails a month ...
I have not rented a movie from Blockbuster in years ( I used Netflix for a while and now Redbox), but I did recently rent a game for my wii. It was upwards of $9! Just a few years ago, a videogame rental was in the $5 range. I decided that would be the last game I rent from B&M.
Any price increase will only serve to magnify their failed business model. They need to begin dumping B&M stores in favor of mail order, online delivery and kiosks (i.e. Redbox). That is how they can survive.
I pay 19.99 a month for unlimited 3 at a time mailings and unlimited in store exchanges. I figure I can watch at least 30 movies a month via this route. You do the math. I have no problem with a price increase.
Sorry pal, but that plan you have with Blockbuster for $19.99 is a lie. You don't have that. That plan is now cost $34.99. So don't bullshit us you stupid retard.
The funny thing is, I just started going to Blockbuster a month or two ago after having given up them for years.
When my friends and I want to kill a few hours, we just rent a Wii game overnight for $.99, get a few hours of fun in, and drop it back off the next day. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than killing time by going to a movie, and I'll keep doing it as long as the price stays the same (or close to it).
where/how in the world do you rend a video game for .99!
Once again, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Hmmm, charge higher prices to get more people to rent your product?!? WTH? BB is not some exclusive hard to get into club where I will have to suck it up and pay $20 for a glass of water. Bad call.
Not that I would EVER pay $20 for a glass of water mind you!
Since Netflix is in bed with Microsoft and the Xbox 360, Blockbuster should cut a deal with Sony and offer streaming HD rentals to Blockbuster Online subscribers via the PS3.
BB already sells and rents Blu-rays and PS2 and PS3 games, so that dovetails nicely with Sony's strategy. It even uses a PS3 as its in-store Blu-ray player for the display unit playing the video educating the still clueless what Blu-ray is and why it looks and is better. Did I mention that Sony is a movie studio, and would thus benefit from a healthy Blockbuster renting its movies?
C'mon Sony and Blockbuster, you two make such a cute couple - get together!
The Blockbuster of Fail with the PS3 of Fail.
They fail so much better together!
When did PS3 fail? Contrary to your misguided belief being the number 3 game console of out 3 is not a fail. In fact, It's doing just fine and it's a great blu-ray machine.
Stop being a 360 fanboy and open your eyes to the potential.
Hey folks, if any of you rent from the store and wanna save $3.00 on a new release rental. Go to
http://www.wow-coupons.com/printable-retail-coupons.php.
Its a 2 minute survey and it will email you a $1.99 new release rental coupon. Ive been doing this for the past 8 months. There is no way I'm gonna pay $5.18 for a movie. Just open a bunch of email accounts so you can get a bunch of these coupons. One coupon per month. So i opened about 20 yahoo and msn email accounts for this.
The more they up the price, the better a rental from the RedBox machine looks.
Stupid Blockbuster. Rental rates were already too high. I rent from Redbox for buck and DVD Express for 99 cents.