One of the mini-cases I studied in the spring was the steady decline of Blockbuster Video as its business model finds itself far behind the times. No surprises, then, that I was particularly piqued by this article in the New York Times BITS blog.
Blockbuster's got a lot of problems these days. They have massive debt, they're closing stores left and right, and Netflix is running away with all the video-rental profits. People just don't drive to a store to rent movies any more. So, Blockbuster has no choice but to change its delivery systems - and fast. They've put rental kiosks in place to cut down on brick-and-mortar store costs, but it's just not enough. So, they've decided to join the e-bandwagon.
Earlier this year, Blockbuster released a mobile app that essentially allows unlimited streaming of movies over a period for a flat fee. They had already released an app that identifies nearby Blockbuster outlets and availability, which as I understand is becoming more and more irrelevant.
They're probably going to have problems going forward with rights management, because files like these tend to get copied by unscrupulous and/or cheap individuals. They'll also have to deal with the added strain on network servers with the bandwidth required to view a full movie. But it's a strong step forward for Blockbuster, and perhaps the only gamble that could pay off in the future. With titan Netflix looming large at the fore, however, this is not a time for Blockbuster to hedge its bets. They have to change their business model, or Blockbuster's quickly going to be a bygone element of culture past.
PS. Antkeg Remi for Senate.
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