Blockbuster integrates Movielink to Web site

With 5,000 titles, online service in beta-testing stage

By Danny King -- Video Business, 7/24/2008

JULY 24 | Blockbuster has fully integrated the Movielink video-download service with Blockbuster.com, creating one online destination where customers can rent DVDs by mail, purchase new and used DVDs and download movies for rental or purchase.

About 5,000 titles are available on the Movielink service, including 4,500 for sell-through and 2,000 for rental. Movielink is being beta-tested for a limited number of users.

In a fact sheet about the integration, Blockbuster makes the case for downloads being more reliable and portable than streaming video, which is used by rival Netflix and Amazon’s new Video on Demand service, also in beta.

The largest U.S. movie-rental chain is looking to bolster in-store and by-mail sales by entering a digital-content market whose competitors include Netflix, Apple and Amazon.com.

Blockbuster acquired Movielink from the five major studios last August for $6.6 million, a year after trying to buy the service for about $70 million. The studios, which launched Movielink in 2002, reportedly spent $100 million on the service.

Earlier this month, Blockbuster hired former Warner Bros. executive Jeffrey Calman to strengthen its ties to entertainment-content producers in an attempt to boost digital-media sales. The company created the position of VP of studio relations and new media for Calman, who worked for the Time Warner unit for more than two decades.

Blockbuster also is developing concept stores that are more entertainment-oriented and put a greater emphasis on digital sales and the fast-growing videogames market. Plus, the company is partnering with NCR Corp. to develop kiosks that will allow in-store digital downloads.