Blockbuster, NCR to make DVD-vending machines
Chain could have 10,000 kiosks by 2010
By Danny King -- Video Business, 8/4/2008
AUG. 4 | Blockbuster will have NCR start building DVD-vending kiosks in an agreement that expands the relationship between the largest U.S. movie-rental chain and the world’s largest automated-teller machine maker.
NCR will make 50 kiosks for Blockbuster by next month.
NCR by next month will make 50 kiosks for Blockbuster and expects to have 10,000 Blockbuster-branded installed machines by early 2010, NCR CEO Bill Nuti said in a statement today. The kiosks will let customers rent DVDs and eventually may let them buy and make digital-downloads of certain titles, the companies said.
With the agreement in place, Blockbuster is trying to challenge companies such as Redbox and TNR for share of the kiosk market that’s expected to pull sales from stores during the next few years. U.S. consumers will spend $800 million at kiosks by 2010, triple the amount spent last year, according to a forecast by Convergence Consulting Group. Meanwhile, store rental revenue, estimated at $5.4 billion last year, will fall to $3.1 billion by 2010, Convergence anticipates.
No pricing for kiosk DVDs has been set, said Blockbuster spokesman Randy Hargrove, who added that the first kiosks would be in “high traffic retail areas,” though he declined to be more specific. Redbox and others let customers rent movies for $1 a day.
“With NCR’s advanced technology, these machines will dispense a wide array of DVDs and could offer digital downloading in the future, all under the Blockbuster brand,” said Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes in a statement today.
Earlier this year, Blockbuster said NCR would build machines that would allow for customers to download movies to handheld devices. The first of such kiosks will be installed at two of Blockbuster’s Dallas stores by the end of next month.
Last month, NCR acquired a minority stake in closely held kiosk maker E-Play in an agreement that will add several thousand self-service DVD-trading machines in GameStop, Dollar Tree and other U.S. retailers within the next few years.
