Redbox

In early February, Redbox dropped a pair of bombshells. The first, the purchase of the Blockbuster Express kiosks, has come and gone and, frankly, no one really noticed, but the second bombshell, the announcement that Redbox would be teaming up with Verizon on a Netflix-like streaming service, promises to provide some lasting fodder. It took nearly five months, but the service now has a name, an executive team, and an invite-only testing phase. The service is officially called Redbox Instant by Verizon. Verizon's desperate attempt to be recognized publicly as a part of the service has resulted in an ungainly name that we can probably safely assume will never be known by any moniker other than Redbox Instant. As for the executive team, freshly unveiled CEO Shawn Strickland could be a name to watch for. It is bound to come up again if the service is successful, or if it flames out spectacularly. Finally, there is the testing phase. Assuming one can score an invitation, the testing phase highlights the biggest issue with the entire service: it is for Verizon customers only.

A Verizon representative confirmed to us that the service — which combines traditional Redox DVD and Blu-ray kiosk rentals with streaming over Verizon’s network — is in an invitation-only “alpha” testing stage.

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Redbox has taken some big steps this year by buying out their competition and making moves into the streaming business. Evidently the company also has some big numbers to be excited about. The company has announced that they have rented more than 2 billion movie and video game discs over the last several years, and they are celebrating by offering a free movie rental. The most surprising part is how quickly the company got to that second billion compared to how long it took to get to the first billion. It serves to underscore just how rapidly the company is growing. 

Redbox announced this week that the company crossed the two billion mark for movie and video game rentals. It will celebrate the milestone by offering a free, one-night movie rental with the code “THANKS2U” for one day only on Thursday. Redbox has seen substantial growth over the past 18 months, with one billion additional rentals, a feat that previously took six years to accomplish.

 Boy Genius Report

Today was an exciting day for Netflix. They launched their first original series, Lillyhammer, and got to watch Redbox unload on them with both barrels. Redbox has risen rapidly in the last few years to become Netflix's biggest competitor in the DVD and Blu-ray rental market, and today Redbox made two major announcements that signal their intention to be even more of a competitive threat in the future. 

The first announcement was a partnership with Verizon to launch a streaming video service. The service will launch in the second half of 2012 and will offer both on-demand streaming and downloads. Verizon will hold a 65 percent ownership share, which makes sense as they will actually be doing much of the heavy-lifting on the backend and are expected leverage their relationships with content providers to help secure much of the content for the service while Redbox brings the brand name and nationwide customer relationships. Though Verizon will undoubtedly position the new service as a feather in their FiOS cap, the service will not be limited to the Verizon network.

Rental kiosk service Redbox is apparently trying to move in on the streaming video market. The company has just announced a joint venture with Verizon that will combine the Redbox DVD and Blu-ray rental business with "video on demand streaming and download service."

The Verge

Hot the heels of their announcement about partnering with Verizon, Redbox also announced that they had purchased NCR's entertainment division, operators of the Blockbuster Express kiosks. The deal reportedly includes all of the Blockbuster Express kiosks, retail contracts, and disc inventories. There is no word how long it will take, but it is only a matter of time before the blue kiosks turn red. Redbox has already shown that it can compete successfully with Netflix's DVD-by-mail service and the NCR announcement only strengthens their position. Combined with the Verizon deal, will Redbox have the arsenal it needs to go toe-to-toe with Netflix on all fronts?

That includes DVD kiosks, retailer contracts and an inventory of discs for stocking the machines. That's big news not only because it expands Redbox's already sizable self-serve rental empire, but because it's doing so at the expense of the floundering Blockbuster, since NCR owns the blue and yellow rental kiosks. 

Engadget

Warner Brothers was the first studio to push Netflix, Redbox, and Blockbuster into agreements requiring a 28 day window on rentals from the date that DVDs go on sale. When Netflix, the first domino to fall, signed on, Netflix claimed that Warner Brothers would be providing better streaming options in return. How well this worked out is debatable, but there won't be any such justifications this time as Warner Brothers is not planning on offering anyone anything in exchange for signing on to a new agreement except a 56 day rental window. Warner Brothers and the other studios have argued that the rental window is necessary to protect DVD sales. Given that the 28 day window hasn't done much to improve DVD sales, one has to wonder how doubling the window is going to help. As it is, I expect most people who rent rather than buy have long since stopped paying attention to the retail release date altogether.

The move is part of Hollywood’s ongoing campaign to bolster flagging DVD sales, and sources tell me the new deal is supposed to be announced at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Warner Brothers executives have already talked publicly about extending the current window.

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