What's happening with Block Buster?

[TheForce]

Heard a rumor form some Blockbuster employees yesterday that they are closing a large number of stores. Seems they are losing money. Is this true?

I would be greatly disappointed as one of them slated for closing is the one I use that is less than a mile from my house. In fact, I understand they are closing several in my area and this would put the nearest open Blockbuster that I know of about 8 miles from the house.

I had movie pass which was a great thing while it lasted. I just signed a new contract for a year but it looks like BB will be breaching that on me in November.


Recent stuff BB has done that seems to not be working well is the BB on line where you never can get the movies on the latest releases, only the old ones seem to be available. Lots of food sales is poor compared the the inventory they carry. They have been carrying more and more of the Exclusive BB movies. Seems OK but I don't know what the cost is up front on these Exclusives. Movie Pass seems like a real loser. I have it and it saves me between $160 and $200 a month. vs renting at normal rates. I see, however, they don't have too many people on those and they don't advertise it. I can see why.
Management turnover is swift, monthly it seems.

So if any of you know, what is the financial picture like for BB nationwide?

 

[Bob Haller]

a bunch of local stores closed then reopened. it appears a business on its way out, locally giant eagle are closing all their iggle video stores in favor oif self service kiosks.

PPVs and VOD are probably the cause

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I wouldnt want to open stock in this company.

The video store is going the way of the rotery phone.

 

[navychop]

I think they closed almost 300 stores last year (FY?) and will close almost as many this year.

Perhaps if they come to view local stores as supporting their online business (easy quick return), they might compete with Netflix.

I think there will be a (declining) market for a few local video stores to go browse thru for a rental, especially with kids. But it's on it's way to obscurity. Maybe bookstores will get more into selling DVDs, as that "walk in" market declines also. Online ordering is only going to take away ever more market share, both for sales and rental. Then, one day, downloading will take off.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

With IPTV technologies starting to grow, many folks will start saying soon, who go to the video store, when everything is there at their fingertips alrady.

I hear NetFlix is testing an IPTV box which lets you rent movies without them needing to ship you the disc.

 

[cybok0]

They closed one of the stores in my town, they had two, I guess competing with Netflix and Redbox is too hard to overcome.

 

[cybok0]

With IPTV technologies starting to grow, many folks will start saying soon, who go to the video store, when everything is there at their fingertips alrady.

I hear NetFlix is testing an IPTV box which lets you rent movies without them needing to ship you the disc.

Netflix remembers name, streams movies online - FierceIPTV - IPTV News, IP Videos, Quadruple Play, Set-top box

I haven't tried it yet, but looking forward to give it a shot, I get 18 hrs of movies to watch a month at no extra charge.

 

[TheForce]

I see...

Blockbuster's new boss hopes to repeat his 7-Eleven success - International Herald Tribune

Talk about me being clueless, I had no idea BB was in this much trouble and soon to be history. Let's hope they can recover. I kind of like the idea of renting DVD's. I was looking forward to getting into Blue Ray soon using BB for my source as I really don't like buying the disks at $20 for a one time watch on 90% of my movies.

I'll be checking back in with Hollywood Video again to see how they have improved. I see Hollywood Video still has MVP for competitive price to BB.

 

[cybok0]

I see...

Blockbuster's new boss hopes to repeat his 7-Eleven success - International Herald Tribune

Talk about me being clueless, I had no idea BB was in this much trouble and soon to be history. Let's hope they can recover. I kind of like the idea of renting DVD's. I was looking forward to getting into Blue Ray soon using BB for my source as I really don't like buying the disks at $20 for a one time watch on 90% of my movies.

I'll be checking back in with Hollywood Video again to see how they have improved.

Try Netflix, you'll never go back.

 

[digiblur]

doesn't surprise me. my family hasn't rented a movie in years.

 

[stone phillips420]

bb has turned into 7-11 long ago junk food haven
the may have dvds most likely slim pickings
the video game section severly lack hardly any ps3 wii or 360 titles
cant wait for bb to close, feel bad for all the mom and pop stores they put out of business

good riddance blockbuster you suck imho
long live netflix,gamefly

 

[Van]

I rent weekly from a local place that also does fake and bake. Four movies go for $10 regardless of wether its a new release or old film and they have some stuff on vhs before the advent of dvd. Theres another one in town thats a small chain thats supposed to have alot of foriegn films wich apeals to me so I will be checking them out ( wouldnt have known about them if I hadnt ditched sirius and started listing to terestrial radio ).

Block buster was always good to me and I never had an issue with going in and not being able to get a new release, same goes for hollywood video and both are here on my side of town but I havent went in yet as I like the small shop down the street from me. I wont do netflix, I dont want to have to wait 3 - 7 days to get a dvd in the mail that may or may not be in viewable condition and could get lost in the mail somewhere, I'll leave that for the birds and spend a little time driving down to the local store so that I can watch the movie alot sooner.

 

[stone phillips420]

select netflix film and shows streamed instantly to your pc for instant view

 

[MikeD-C05]

I haven't rented from a physical video store like Block BUster in about 10 years. I have used pay per view off of satellite or bought the dvd when it came out if I wanted it bad enough. I now just make dvds off of satellite when I want a good copy for my library. Now that DISH will have external hard drives ,I can have a whole lot more room for shows I want to own and make copies later in dvd. The funny thing is that I still go to the movie theater quite regular. NOTHING has surpassed that viewing experience for me , not even HD.

 

[TheForce]

I don't think Netflix will work for me. Last I looked into it it was very expensive and limited on delivery. I also tried BB online and it was like netflix but lacked delivery.

What works for me is the pass for unlimited movies for a one time charge per month. I pay $25 per month for 2 out at a time. In a busy week, I may get 14 movies, no restrictions on new releases. The first month I got this I watched the equivalent of $225 of rentals in the month but paid $25. My average over the year was $165 worth of rentals per month. The problem with the "mail it to you" return by mail is turn around time and what's in stock. Frankly, it sucks on new releases. If you want to watch a movie from the 80's you'll do OK.
I'll wait on the download to your computer concept for now. 9 Gb can take awhile to download even with my fast cable modem. I'm not interested in the movie if the image quality is restricted for internet. Then I'd need to build out the hardware to feed the audio video to my Home theater with the 120" screen.
Additionally, I like the features on the DVD. Without those I am much less interested. Every time I look into Netflix based on others encouragement, I find it is expensive and lacks turn around time.
Movie pass or MVP is not for everyone. People contributing to this thread with "I never rent anyway so why should you", are a bit shallow, IMO. The fact that I do enjoy my HT and DVD is why I do appreciate the deals on rentals. If all I had is a little TV set or a laptop computer and a pair of headphones, I probably wouldn't have the rental program I do. Some people buy DVD's but I watch too many to afford that. Anyway, I do recognize that times change and with that comes the passing of the companies like Blockbuster, maybe Hollywood Video and the Mom& Pop independents. I will need to find replacement deal. Speaking of Mom& Pop rentals stores. I used to go there too, but the selection was always poor and the quantity lacking. No real deals on price either.

I agree about the food and stuff at these rental stores. The MBA who thought he would copy the theater business model wasn't too smart. The theater has you captive, while rental DVD has you at home and you can buy soda and candy popcorn for 20% of what the BB store sells it for. I rarely see anyone buy their expensive food at BB, Yet it occupies 20% of the floor space.

 

[navychop]

Better enjoy that Hollywood Video while you can, their parent company is going bankrupt.

Anyway, for most of us here- Who needs Blockbuster or Netflix? Really, think about it. Dish is about to offer movies downloaded over the internet. If they do this right, they'll have thousands of movies and other titles available, and we can pick almost anything we'd want. For many of us, SD might download in real time, or so close to real time as to be quicker than a trip to the local video store. And an HD download will surely be faster than Netflix.

I'm not worried about "if they do it right." There's too much money on the table for them to screw this one up. They can corner the market and keep customers happy for life. Think about it- a great HD DVR, external storage, PPV selection, VOD, and the download option for almost everything else. And more and more customers will have broadband. I'd love to see the figures, and I'll bet Dish has- don't you think a large majority of satellite customers have broadband also?

 

[TheForce]

Navychop- You are sounding like some of my clients. " I have broadband DSL so why is my WMP buffering so much? Fact- You have what the phone company calls Broadband, meaning you have something faster than 56kbps and it is always on. Do a speed check on a large file. Oh, you saw you only get 200kbps? Now you know why the 320x240 video buffers so much.

OK this is an exaggeration but the point sticks. Marketing people use pretty words all the time to fool the public but the reality is often it's not what they want you to believe. another example is an unregulated consumer Cable broadband will do 12 Mbps that is in reality, for a few minutes then slowly fall back to 6 Mbps as the huge file continues to download. Additionally, are you going to install a special line for this use? No? then what do you think happens when you're sharing the line with an 8Gb download, surfing the internet with other family members including watching YouTube? Somethings got to give here. Remember I just stated, I'm not interested in the internet video if it looks like crap on my 120" screen. Nor am I interested in it if the file is DVD quality but a movie hogs my cable modem's total capacity for 20 hours a day.
But let's assume next year all cable modems are now running at 100Mbps and this allows as you said ability to download 7-9 Gb in DVD files in in less time it takes to drive to the rental store. What will the cost be? PPV rates? If so, I can't afford that. What will the DRM be? Watch once?
Lots of people brag on bit torrent. So I tried it for a couple of weeks. It sucked. I finally got a 1 hour show in HD quality after 4 days of downloading and tied up a computer for that project. Bit torrent is another myth against reality.

For satellite companies to come through, it needs to be in HD quality, even DVD quality (HD Lite would do), have movies out the same week that the DVD is released, make deals like Movie Pass and offer the extra features for a time period DRM like 5 days of multi watch. You could order up online but the movie needs to be downloaded, not to your computer nor via your cable modem line but via satellite signal to your DVR's hard drive's partition for VOD. Do this for $29 a month unlimited number ( based on hard drive capacity)and then they would be accommodating my needs, not me accommodating their desire to ring in a cash cow. I'm not interested if they use the broadband line to download the huge files that these movies would be.

The above may be a formula that would work. Coupled with the premium movie channels doing the same for older movies, the VOD via satellite signal to your DVR would be the perfect paradise. Not PPV, but charge a flat rate per month. Like HBO and others do but make the rate higher for new releases, less expensive for not so new releases, and HBO rates for HBO like aged movies.

 

[Bob Haller]

boy you folks must have a lot of free time to watch so many movies. I rarely have 2 or 3 hours to watch anything.......

 

[TheForce]

Bob- I know what you do for work- What I do IS this business so keeping up with the latest in what people see in Hollywood is important to know so when they ask for some format or approach to telling their story, I have to know what they are referring to, eg I what the visual to appear like in the movie Sleepy Hollow. The cool thing is, what I do for income doesn't seem like work. If I fixed office machines, now that would be like work. The advantage to what you do is you can charge by the hour, what I do often has a huge creative element in play, research time, that gets figured into the over all bid. This means that, in a way, I am being paid to watch these movies, much in the same way movie critics get paid. ¿Comprende

 

[Bob Haller]

Bob- I know what you do for work- What I do IS this business so keeping up with the latest in what people see in Hollywood is important to know so when they ask for some format or approach to telling their story, I have to know what they are referring to, eg I what the visual to appear like in the movie Sleepy Hollow. The cool thing is, what I do for income doesn't seem like work. If I fixed office machines, now that would be like work. The advantage to what you do is you can charge by the hour, what I do often has a huge creative element in play, research time, that gets figured into the over all bid. This means that, in a way, I am being paid to watch these movies, much in the same way movie critics get paid. ¿Comprende

thats pretty nice, get paid to watch movies.

I enjoy going to movie theatre as long as people arent using their cell phones during the movie. have given serious thought to building a cell jammer power on during movie just to be rid of those pesky idiots playing with their phones.

On fixing machines I actually mostly enjoy fixing things.

see a disappointed customer who mucked up their machine bad.

I walk in and before you know it they are back up and running recently a nice gal had cried after jamming machine, thats what her friends said.........

well I fixed the machine and offered a little operator training, to make life easier.

she had a bad attotude when called on phone but did come, and after my helpful hints asked can I hug you sure..........

I LOVE being useful to others so fixing stuff fits me well.

personally I prefer people have maintence for about 250 bucks per machine per year I fix whatever breaks and service the machine yearly to minimize breakdowns espically right when school starts.

elminates all those long sad looks about expensive bills, easier for me too

a few years ago I got about 70 service calls in 3 days. TOTALY IMPOSSIBLE! I can do 3 or 4 complete service call machines a day if things go well. depending on location etc...