Blockbuster gives $25 to online PayPal users

Movie-rental chain pushes Web subscription service

By Danny King -- Video Business, 8/29/2008

AUG. 29 | Blockbuster is offering $25 to customers who sign up as an online movie-rental subscriber through eBay's PayPal electronic-payment service.

New customers using PayPal also will get a two-week trial, Blockbuster said in a promotional e-mail.

The largest U.S. movie-rental chain has been competing with online movie-rental services such as Netflix in an attempt to bolster sales as Blockbuster has closed some of its bricks-and-mortar stores. Blockbuster earlier this month said second-quarter sales rose 3.3%, though its loss widened on the year-earlier sale of its GameStation chain.

Blockbuster, which has 3.2 million subscribers and about 7,600 stores, has been trying to boost customers as in-store DVD spending has flattened because of more digital downloads and an expanding movie-rental kiosk industry.

U.S. DVD spending for the first half of the year was little changed at $10.1 billion, according to data compiled by Video Business and Rentrak.