The number one wireless provider in the U.S. has teamed up with the number one DVD-rental machine company to take down the company that defined DVD-rental by mail and has been defining video streaming. Unlike the other big announcement this week from Redbox’s parent company Coinstar, this might seem like an odd bit of synergy at first. Purchasing Blockbuster Express means Redbox is now in almost every grocery store and mall across the United States. Redbox is going to own impulse DVD rentals. Except there are a lot of us that don’t rent DVDs anymore, aren’t there?
My 11 year-old thinks this is a coaster
The popularity of services like Hulu Plus and especially Netflix show how strong a desire there is for entertainment to be accessed anywhere. By partnering with Verizon, RedBox has an instant advantage over existing services. There’s also the factor of being able to pick and chose between impulse rental at any of the gazillion Redbox locations or pointing and clicking. It’s certainly faster than waiting for a Netflix DVD.
Verizon also doesn’t allow competing products on their handsets. There’s no Google Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus because Verizon may, eventually, introduce their own digital wallet service. Considering how tightly they control their services, it’s ironic that Verizon has stated that they plan for this partnership with Redbox to be a stand-alone service, available for non-Verizon subscribers as well. I personally can’t wait to see how that goes over with AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. I’m imagining lots of swearing.
This new hybrid company is looking to be an instant 400 pound gorilla. With Netflix losing luster in the eyes of many over their recent flurry of changes, they run the risk of Verizon/Redbox easily knocking them out of the pack.
Comments are closed.