Blockbuster giving away download set-top box
Subscribers get player, 25 movies for $99 for a 'limited time'
By Danny King -- Video Business, 11/25/2008
NOV. 25 | True to its word, Blockbuster today launched a set-top box that will play digital downloads from Blockbuster.com directly on consumers' TV sets, allowing the largest U.S. movie-rental chain to compete directly with Netflix and Apple in the digital content delivery field.
Blockbuster will give away the 2Wire set-top box with the purchase of 25 VOD titles.
For now, Blockbuster will give away the set-top box, made by San Jose, Calif.-based component maker 2Wire, to customers who buy in advance 25 video-on-demand titles from Blockbuster for $99. That promotion will expire after "a limited time," the largest U.S. movie-rental store chain said today in a statement. The set-top box, which requires a broadband connection, will be available both on Blockbuster's Web site and at two of its technology-concept stores in Dallas and Reno, Nevada.
"The player is simple to use, delivers DVD quality video, and there's no monthly subscription commitment," Blockbuster CEO James Keyes said in the statement.
The set-top box will be able to process both standard-definition and high-definition content from an inventory of "thousands" of titles, the company said. Blockbuster, which will promote the product online and with signage at the two concept stores, didn't specify how long the initial promotion will last or how much it will charge for the component after the promotion expires.
Earlier this month, Blockbuster said it would deepen its commitment to digital delivery by making a set-top box allowing for direct-to-TV digital content delivery available in time for the holiday season. The company integrated what had been known as its Movielink digital download service into Blockbuster's Web site in July, almost a year after Blockbuster bought the service from the five major studios for $6.6 million.
The 2Wire component is similar to the Roku set-top box Netflix began selling in May that allowed subscribers to video-stream from Netflix's inventory of 12,000 digital titles directly to their TVs. The player sold out shortly after it was launched.
Since then, Netflix, which that month said its digital-delivery service would help double the company's subscriber base within a decade, has reached agreements allowing its titles to be streamed to TVs through components ranging from TiVo digital video recorders to Samsung and LG Blu-ray Disc players to Microsoft's Xbox 360 videogame consoles.
Apple also jumped into the digital content to TV delivery field when it launched Apple TV last year. That product allows customers to watch titles purchased from Apple's iTunes service directly on their TVs.
Blockbuster earlier this month said it narrowed its third-quarter loss by 48% as the company slightly boosted rental revenue and capitalized on the booming videogame market. The No. 1 video rentailer raised rental rates while cutting its store count by about 4% from a year earlier.
2Wire, which launched the MediaPoint digital-media player earlier this month, also makes broadband-connection products for telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Bell Canada. Blockbuster is the first user of the MediaPoint player.
