Movies
Say goodbye to Blockbuster
"It looks like the bottom has finally fallen out of Blockbuster. After numerous failed attempts at attracting new customers, the company is finally spiraling out of control.
Sad as it is, the end is near for Blockbuster, and all that pressure it has been placing on Netflix will be lifted.
And in the end, Netflix will be left standing to fight another day.
Although Blockbuster tried everything it could to create a compelling reason for us to use the service, the company could not overcome its downfall. For years, it was hated by those people who saw it as a monolithic organization that enjoyed charging exorbitant late fees and had little or no care of what the customers wanted most. So when Netflix offered an entirely new service, the dynamics of the industry was inexorably changed, and Blockbuster was left playing catch up.
According to the company's third-quarter results released Thursday, Blockbuster's revenue slid 5.7 percent and the company harbored a net loss of $35 million. Worse, it has closed 526 stores in the past year, and the number of employees will be reduced to offset high overhead costs to the tune of $45 million. Blockbuster's injured stock price continues to fall and was priced at $5.06 at Thursday's close.
But if that's not enough to signal defeat, Blockbuster Chairman Jim Keyes admitted that his company's focus on Netflix was damaging and has decided to pull the plug on his demand for higher Total Access membership. Instead, he wants Blockbuster to focus on increasing overall membership.
Sorry, Jim, but I think you're out of luck."
I switched back to Netflix and so far it's been good. Fast turn around in the mail and they're sending the movies in the correct order, and it's still the same price it was two years ago, unlike Blockbuster who raised it's price almost 50% per month.
"It looks like the bottom has finally fallen out of Blockbuster. After numerous failed attempts at attracting new customers, the company is finally spiraling out of control.
Sad as it is, the end is near for Blockbuster, and all that pressure it has been placing on Netflix will be lifted.
And in the end, Netflix will be left standing to fight another day.
Although Blockbuster tried everything it could to create a compelling reason for us to use the service, the company could not overcome its downfall. For years, it was hated by those people who saw it as a monolithic organization that enjoyed charging exorbitant late fees and had little or no care of what the customers wanted most. So when Netflix offered an entirely new service, the dynamics of the industry was inexorably changed, and Blockbuster was left playing catch up.
According to the company's third-quarter results released Thursday, Blockbuster's revenue slid 5.7 percent and the company harbored a net loss of $35 million. Worse, it has closed 526 stores in the past year, and the number of employees will be reduced to offset high overhead costs to the tune of $45 million. Blockbuster's injured stock price continues to fall and was priced at $5.06 at Thursday's close.
But if that's not enough to signal defeat, Blockbuster Chairman Jim Keyes admitted that his company's focus on Netflix was damaging and has decided to pull the plug on his demand for higher Total Access membership. Instead, he wants Blockbuster to focus on increasing overall membership.
Sorry, Jim, but I think you're out of luck."
I switched back to Netflix and so far it's been good. Fast turn around in the mail and they're sending the movies in the correct order, and it's still the same price it was two years ago, unlike Blockbuster who raised it's price almost 50% per month.
posted by nolocontendere at 11:35 PM
7 Comments:
I stopped using Blockbuster (called "cube smasher" in our house) when I found out they censored movies. Screw that.
I don't care if there was a sticker on the case saying they'd messed with the director's intent, it's still wrong.
Is that company policy to do that, or is it up to the individual store proprietor to stock that crap, bpaul?
The store nearest me decided to drop classics in favor of tons of teen angst and romantic comedies, which was another factor in dumping the place. They're crashing and burning because they're into top down corporate manipulation instead of giving customers what they want.
Such as that original Total Access deal last year, which was good for the customers but ate a little into the profit margin so they raised the price, basically yanking the rug out from under the customers.
we're back with netflix, who dropped their price by $1.00 from when we last used them. and finally, after almost 5 months of waiting to see whose afraid of virginia wolf, 5 months of being told by customer service "we'll have it sent from another warehouse", 5 months in which it held steady in the #1 position with blockbuster and had the "available" next to it...with the switch to netflix, i put it into the #1 slot and had it 2 days later. and now we get to see those documentaries and independents blockbuster never carried.
said it before and I will say it again. All of the movies are available on the net. I use sharethefiles.com. I get my movies when they are released. Its worth spending a couple of hours downloading and learning about emule.com and sharethefiles. you will never rent anything again.
Aww expatbrian, you're trying to take the fun out of getting costly little presents in the mail.
nolo, I think the movies that are censored were done at the central office. As to what movies each branch carried, I think that is what varied according to manager or demographic or something.
Moot now I guess eh?
expat, you forget that not all of us are wealthy enough to pay for high-speed cable connections. I'm on d.u. and the d-l is much too slow to d-l anything longer than 5 - 10 minutes a day.
I've always resented blockbuster as a fast-kap media-mogul because when it moved into our area in the early 90s, it forced all the local video-shops out of business.
After comparing blockbuster to the few independent video-shops that managed to survive, mostly in the college-towns to the north, I prefer the independent shops because they aren't run by a bunch of worker-drones that adhere to a higher power management like the damn right-wing radio stations, which are all run by clear-channel.
Good riddance blockbuster, you fast kapitan of mainstream media!
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