Blockbuster gives away a free set-top-box when you sign up for its Internet video on-demand service
7 months. That’s what it took Blockbuster to come out with its Internet on-demand video strategy after it unveiled its online plans. Finally, this morning the video rental company announced it is giving away a set-top-box that downloads and stores videos over the Internet and plays them on your television.
Apple already does this with the AppleTV set-top-box and iTunes store offering, and Netflix also does that (streams but not stores) with Roku’s Netflix Player, TiVo, LG’s Blu-ray player and any Windows or Mac PCs.
Blockbuster’s digital media player is built by San Jose, Calif., company 2Wire and each online video rents from $1.99 versus $2.99 on iTunes and $3.99 on Amazon.
However, Blockbuster gives away the box – it’s actually $99 but you get $99 credit of free movies when you sign in – while the AppleTV costs $229.
Too little too late, again
From mail rentals to online rentals, and now with this set-top-box offering, Blockbuster is consistently behind the competition. Will it fare better this time?
I doubt because the competition online is even fiercer with Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu… all of them heading to the same place… i.e. your living room!
So what would be the best over all Internet video solution for the living room? I believe it’s here already, as a combination of all the solutions out there:
- A $99 set-top-box with a $99 credit for free videos (Blockbuster);
- A low subscription cost for older titles (Netflix/Roku);
- Ad-supported free titles (Hulu if you could watch it on TV);
- $1.99 for new titles (Blockbuster). Apple charges a minimum of $2.99 and $3.99 at Amazon.
What’s your Internet video solution of your dreams?
[...] include the $229 Apple TV, Vudu’s $150 HD box – with only 1,300 HD titles accessible – and Blockbuster’s 2Wire MediaPoint player. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Amazon Launches on Roku [...]