Monday, May 05, 2008

going backwards

The other day when I was visiting the local Blockbuster the guy at the counter asked how I felt about my online service plan with the company. I noted that it worked fine for me. He then commented on how it had gotten more expensive, so maybe I would be interested in a different plan. Below are the details of my plan and the plan the guy wanted to sell me.
My Plan:
$19.99 per month plus tax. I get three movies at a time through the online service and I can turn in five movies a month into the store for a free rental. It is certainly not as good as my plan a year or two ago, but it is still acceptable given how much I use it.

The Other Plan:
$21.99 per month plus tax. I would get one movie at a time through the store and could exchange it for another movie whenever I wanted.
I know there is probably a scenario or two where the second plan makes sense, like if someone lives across the street from the Blockbuster and only wants to watch movies available at the local Blockbuster. I have some serious questions about the sanity of even offering such a plan, though. Consumers may have bought into it ten years ago but they will not today. If I am stuck with getting only the movies available at the local Blockbuster, Redbox is almost certainly a better deal.

It is no secret that Blockbuster's business model is broken. The company's strength is in its brick and mortar stores, but the future of video is viewing movies through an online connection. The brick and mortar stores are probably going to get to be too expensive to maintain for the value they provide at some point. Furthermore, I haven't seen any evidence that Blockbuster is prepared to compete with NetFlix on downloadable movies and if it isn't, I think that will ultimately be the death of the company.

I actually hope that Blockbuster picks up on this shortly because I don't want it to fail as a company. I want both Blockbuster and NetFlix to be around for a while to keep prices down. Otherwise, I'll have to pay even more to get my movie fix.

4 comments:

f o r r e s t said...

It should be interesting to see what's in store for dvds. Blockbuster kept raising their price and I was having less time to watch movies, so I gave them up.

The library and redbox will have to do for now.

Achtung BB said...

I've got the plan below yours. I get 2 movies at a time and can trade 3 titles in. It works for us. I can't see while anyone would rent from the store. Redbox is a better way to go.

Unknown said...

2 comments and no one has mentioned thepiratebay and bittorrent? I guess that's a good thing.

shakedust said...

Ah, yes, the pirate who doesn't do anything. :)

I have access to so many movies at any given time, I cannot imagine expending the time and effort to use thepiratebay or bittorrent. I am sure it makes more sense for some people who pay for individual movies, but that is not me.