DVDPlay drops kiosk pricing to spur sales
New price puts DVDs on par with U.S. leader Redbox
By Danny King -- Video Business, 9/29/2008
SEPT. 29 | DVDPlay is dropping the price of its DVD rentals to match its larger rivals.
Closely held DVDPlay, the No. 3 U.S. movie-rental kiosk operator, this week will drop the price of its daily rentals for both standard DVDs and Blu-ray discs to $1, the company said in a statement. DVDPlay, which also said it would expand its title selection, had been charging $1.49.
"In an economy of rising prices, our customers are looking for value for their entertainment dollars," DVDPlay president Charlie Piper said in the statement.
DVDPlay's price reduction brings its fees even with the $1 daily rental rate charged by both Redbox and TNR/Moviecube for standard DVDs. Neither of DVDPlay's larger competitors offer Blu-ray.
DVDPlay's price reduction, which starts Oct. 1, will be in effect for "a limited time," said the company, which wasn't more specific. The company in June brought on Piper, a former Safeway executive, to help expand its business in U.S. grocers.
DVDPlay, which has about 1,400 machines in North American grocery stores such as Kroger and Safeway, trails Coinstar's Redbox unit and TNR/Moviecube among movie-rental kiosk operators. Redbox earlier this month said it had about 10,000 machines, up from about 7,900 six months ago.
The kiosk industry has been predicted to surge as movie-rental chains cut units. Attracted by movie-kiosk prices that are lower than movie rentals at stores such as Blockbuster, U.S. consumers will spend $800 million at kiosks by 2010, triple the amount spent last year, according to Convergence Consulting Group. Meanwhile, store rental revenue, estimated at $5.4 billion last year, will fall to $3.1 billion by 2010, according to Convergence.
Still, Redbox at the end of June delayed filing its prospectus for a planned public offering after the stock markets had their worst second quarter in six years. Redbox's plans in May to file for an offering coincided with a credit crunch and surge in gas prices that helped to create a pullback in investment.
