Blockbuster pitches ‘Access’ to sports fans
Company competes with Netflix for online subscribers
By Danny king -- Video Business, 4/2/2008
APRIL 2 | Blockbuster is boosting primetime TV advertising for its Total Access online-rental service about six weeks after competitor Netflix raised its subscriber forecast and four months after Blockbuster raised Total Access subscription rates to cut losses on the program.
Blockbuster ran TV ads throughout the first two rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, also known as “March Madness,” and plans to air more spots during the CBS Final Four broadcast from San Antonio next weekend.
“March Madness is a high-profile event and offered us a high-profile way to promote our brand,” Blockbuster spokeswoman Karen Raskopf said. The ads target “a concentrated audience of sports lovers, who also index very highly as movie lovers.”
Last month, Blockbuster said fourth-quarter earnings quadrupled as the company edged closer to profitability for Total Access by raising prices and slowed its decline in same-store sales. The company also said it would focus more on its core retail business and close fewer stores than in prior years.
In February, Netflix said its first-quarter subscriber count would be about 3% higher than previously forecast because of cheaper online advertising rates and Blockbuster’s December price increases, which were as high as $10 for some subscribers. Netflix, the largest U.S. movie-rental service via mail, said it would have as many as 8.26 million subscribers on March 31, up from its earlier forecast of 8.05 million, and increased the low end of its first-quarter revenue forecast by $1 million to $324 million.
At the end of the third quarter, Blockbuster had 3.1 million Total Access subscribers, doubling its year-earlier total, though down from 3.6 million in the second quarter. For the fourth quarter, the company didn’t disclose a Total Access subscriber count for the first time since the service launched in 2006.
