Amazon.com Inc. is planning to start a service that would let people store music and video online and access it from various digital devices, people familiar with the matter said. The company could announce the effort as early as Tuesday, the people said. Get the full story »
Inside these posts: DVDs
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Showtime spat with Netflix displays rivalry
Amid an emerging rivalry between traditional pay TV operators and rising star Netflix Inc., CBS Corp.’s Showtime pay TV service confirmed Wednesday that back seasons of current original series like “Dexter” and “Californication” will not be available on Netflix’s streaming service as of this summer. Get the full story »
Netflix back up after 4-hour outage
Netflix Inc. suffered a service outage Tuesday night that left customers unable to view movies or television shows through its online streaming service or through devices such as Roku. The California-based content provider said Wednesday that the service was fully restored.
“Netflix is up and on as usual,” said Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey, via email. “Last night we had an unanticipated and rare technical issue that interrupted the service for about four hours, since fixed.” Get the full story »
Judge clears way for Blockbuster sale
A judge Thursday cleared the way for movie-rental company Blockbuster Inc. to sell itself to a group of hedge funds, after lawyers spent all day in courthouse hallways brokering a deal with movie studios that had objected to the sale terms. The ruling gives the movie studios a better deal and staves off immediate liquidation of Blockbuster’s assets. Get the full story »
Amazon buys Lovefilm, Britain’s Netflix
U.S. online retailer Amazon.com is to buy the 58 percent of British DVD and games rental firm Lovefilm it does not already own for an undisclosed price, it said on Thursday.
Lovefilm, whose Europe-focused business has a similar model to U.S. video rental firm Netflix Inc., has built a movie rental-by-mail business and has also started streaming digital movies. Get the full story »
Redbox hurt by delayed DVD releases
A Redbox kiosk at Walgreens. (Handout)
Shares of Coinstar Inc. fell 26 percent on Friday morning, a day after the electronic kiosk company said delayed releases of DVD titles hurt sales at its unit Redbox during the crucial holiday season.
“This was Redbox’s first holiday season with 28-day delayed titles, and we underestimated the impact that the delay would have on demand during the fourth quarter,” Chief Executive Paul Davis said.
As part of a settlement last year, Redbox had agreed with News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures owned by General Electric and Time Warner’s Warner Bros, to wait for 28 days after a DVD title is released before offering them for rent. Get the full story »
Netflix raises prices, offers stream-only service
Netflix introduced a new plan Monday that, for the first time, relies solely on video streamed over the Internet rather than the DVDs that it has mailed to customers since the company was founded more than a decade ago.
The shift demonstrates how quickly consumers have transitioned from physical media players to digital entertainment that can be browsed, watched again, or discarded without ever having handled a disk. Get the full story »
Blockbuster files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Blockbuster's existing stores will remain open. (AP)
Blockbuster Inc. announced early Thursday that the company and its U.S. subsidiaries have filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, hurt by major shifts in the way consumers view movies and media. Get the full story »
Redbox rents 1 billionth movie
Fast-growing DVD rental provider Redbox said it reached a milestone this weekend with the rental of its 1 billionth movie — “Clash of the Titans,” at a kiosk in Tampa, Fla.
The rental milestone occurred six years after the first kiosk appeared in Denver. Get the full story »
Blockbuster preparing to file bankruptcy
A customer looks at films at a Blockbuster Video store in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
After dominating the home video rental business for more than a decade and struggling to survive in recent years against upstarts Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy next month, according to people who have been briefed on the matter.
Executives from Blockbuster and its senior debt holders last week held meetings with the six major movie studios to discuss their intention to enter a “pre-planned” bankruptcy in mid-September, said several people familiar with the situation who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of ongoing talks. Get the full story »
Redbox strikes deal with CVS
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Oakbrook Terrace-based Redbox announced Thursday that it has reached a deal with CVS/pharmacy to roll out DVD rental kiosks at CVS and Longs Drugs locations nationwide and in Puerto Rico.
The $1-per-night DVD vendor, a subsidiary of Coinstar Inc., said about 700 kiosks will arrive at CVS locations by the end of 2010, and expand to thousands of locations by the end of 2011. Get the full story »
Redbox pondering online rentals
Mitch Lowe, president of Red Box, in Oakbrook Terrace. (Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune)
From Bloomberg News | Oak Brook-based Redbox Redbox, known for $1-a-day DVD rental vending machines, may launch a Web based service to offer more movies beyond the 200 stored in its dispensers, President Mitch Lowe said. Get the full story >>
Blockbuster delisted but dodges bankruptcy
Blockbuster Inc stayed a step ahead of bankruptcy after winning a crucial one-month reprieve on debt payments, but was forced to begin the process of delisting from the New York stock exchange. Get the full story »
