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The Blockbuster is dead, long live the blockbuster.
At least that’s what the technology omens are saying.
The WSJ reported Tuesday that Blockbuster Video, whose shares are trading below $1, is seeking advice on how to file for bankruptcy. Blockbuster counters it’s only trying to get help to restructure its debt.
No matter. The days of tromping to the video store to find the night’s entertainment are past. Now the question is only how long will it be until walking to the mailbox to get a DVD is considered antiquarian.
Driving or walking to the video store to bring home less than a gig of data — data that may or may not even be in stock — just doesn’t make much sense anymore.
At least not when compared to Netflix’s easy ordering system, its
recommendation engine, lack of late fees, deeper inventory and
clever use of the Postal Service to have movies delivered quickly.
Blockbuster tried to keep up, with an innovative mail rental plan that
let people trade in movies at the store as well, but the plan turned
out to be too complicated and too late.
But even the notion of even leaving the room to get a movie, doesn’t
make sense if you have a fat internet connection and the willingness to
explore some legal and less legal ways to download movies to a computer.
Note that also on Tuesday, cable provider Comcast announced that it was rolling out ‘wideband’ in the Bay Area (including a 50 Mbps downstream offering for $140 a month) and
doubled the download speed of its current basic plus service to 12
Mbps down for free. That marks the 10th urban area in the U.S. that the
cable operator is offering real broadband.
Think YouTube, Hulu, NetFlix’s streaming movies, iTunes and Amazon
overpriced rentals on demand, as well as dozens of others striving —
yet again — to find a way to stream Hollywood video across the
internet.
On Wednesday, ZillionTV announced that by the end of the year it will sell a $50 internet-connected set top box
that will stream HD and standard movies and premium TV, letting people
choose to pay for entertainment or watch ad-supported shows.
No one has created a popular computer-in-the-living room solution yet — which makes DVDs still very practical, but that’s just details. Some
company — or several — will and then the notion of leaving the house
to get a movie to watch will seem as quaint as writing a check at the
grocery store.
The only question is what will become of all those old Blockbuster
video stores and their signature blue awnings? My money is on an
innovative pizza delivery company with a blue logo to startup and take
over where the DVD business died.
Because at least so far, the internet has not yet figured out how to deliver a pizza better than a brick-oven pizza place can.
Photo: Flickr/RocketRaccoon
See Also:
- Blockbuster CEO ‘Confused by Fascination’ With Netflix
- Blockbuster’s New Set Top Box: On-Demand, Non-Subscription Rentals …
- Apple Loves Digital Distribution; Blockbuster, Netflix Aren’t So …
- Netflix Movie Streaming Suffers Serious Loss in Quality, Say Roku …
- Time for Microsoft to Buy Netflix?
- ZillionTV: Hollywood and ISPs Unite to Deliver Video over the Net …
Source: Ryan Singel
