Megavideo and similar sites have been around for ages. Apparently the Chicago Tribune is struggling to keep up with the times. I have a hard time seeing them as a credible threat, though. Imagine watching an entire movie or TV show on Youtube (not HD Youtube, either) - well, heck, you don’t have to imagine it, they’re easy enough to find - and you may start to see why it’s not exactly an ideal viewing experience. And then realize that these lower profile sites actually have worse encoding and shittier bandwidth.
Most of Blockbuster’s debt is held by movie studios that want to see Blockbuster continue so the company will exist for sometime. Pitty.
I hate Blockbuster. Back in the 80s the industry was mom and pop stores who would offer a wide variety of films. Some places would specialize in foreign releases or avant garde indie products. Then Blockbuster came in and wiped out all other competitors by offering a bajillion copies of the newest releases at rental prices far bellow the indie stores. Ofcourse once all the indie stores closed their doors, the selection went down, prices went up, fees were crazy and each Blockbuster store became a ghetto sea of empty shelves and over priced candy. While the Mom and pop stores will never come back, I will be very happy the day Blockbuster folds.
I have a hatred for them ever since they canceled my by 3 by mail service back in 2008, all because the mail was slow on delivering movies and they didn’t like my complaining, apparently they wanted me to move over to Netflix where I get my movies 2 days after shipping back the old ones.
The only good thing Blockbuster has had in the last 2 years was that Indiana Jones 4 set of glasses, and the DVD holder they sold when the last movie came out…
After you’ve had the experience of getting videos at the brick and mortar TLA Videos in Philly, going to a Blockbuster was just a laughable experience.
Why?
If the company isn’t making money, why bother?
Just because Blockbuster isn’t making money doesn’t mean the studios aren’t making money. 4 of the big 5 Studios have an interest in keeping the current distribution food chain.
Right now it looks like this:
- First run theaters
- Budget theaters
- Store purchase
- per watch Rental (Blockbuster)
- Pay Per view
- per watch online rental
- on demand ala carte (netflix/redbox)
- Cable movie channels
- Commerical TV
Each step the studios get money for their films. The general fear is when Blockbuster fails, they not only lose the money from that but steps 3, 5, 6, and 7 will collapse as a single tier and they would get less money for steps 8 and 9. Most of us can see this whole chain will unravel at somepoint, probably soon than later, and new movies will be released directly into our homes.
The music industry continues to grow year over year. Only music publishing is actually shrinking in revenue.
Wow. Blockbuster is dying? My first job after moving to Seattle was working at Blockbuster. They helped pay my bills for several months, God bless 'em.
Then I got a decent job, and I’ve never entered one of their stores since. Farewell, Blockbuster! I’ll always remember you!
Nope, that’s reversed. Publishing is up a bit (though it’s small potatoes in the music industry overall.) But global revenues from recorded music fell 7.2% in 2009.
On the bright side, that’s somewhat less awful than 2008, when revenues fell by 15%.
Well, how many autotuned club anthems does one need, anyway?
But musicians are making more than ever.
Go figure.
Yes, interesting how that is when the middleman gets cut out, isn’t it?
…And they’re done.
Blockbuster L.L.C., will end its retail and by mail DVD distribution operations by early-January 2014. The company will close its approximately 300 remaining U.S.-based retail stores, as well as its distribution centers.
DISH will retain licensing rights to the Blockbuster brand, and key assets, including the company’s significant video library. DISH will focus on delivering the Blockbuster @Home service to DISH customers, and on its transactional streaming service for the general market, Blockbuster On Demand.
The stunning news to me? There are 300 retail locations still!?!?
There’s about 50 independent franchise stores that will remain open (for now).
Looks like video stores are going the way of the record store. Goodbye, physical media. Hello, DRM.
Yeah I actually got one about five minutes from where I live. Of course there used to be three of them within five minutes of where I live…
That reminds me of when CompUSA went out of business, but then a few of the stores wheezed along for a while after being bought by some other company. There was one here in Dallas, and they sent out a flyer that had the addresses of the closest three stores on the reverse. Obviously this was a legacy from when it was a flourishing chain, as the stores were in Dallas, McAllen, and El Paso. For those unfamiliar with Texas geography, that’s a triangle with sides roughly 500, 650, and 800 miles long.
I think TigersDirect bought out CompUSA or maybe it was Circuit City or possibly both.
There are a couple of Blockbusters around me, about a ten minute drive. Might be a couple of more in town too. I think they’re independently owned though so they just might become a generic video rental store afterwards. I was never big into renting movies/games as it was always a bit of a hassle to return them on time. Nowadays I just rent digitally off the PSN.
We have quite a few Family Video stores in our location. I think the secret to their hanging on is their clandestine porn section.
