Blockbuster to offer free subscriptions?

Written by Ryan Carrigg (contact - e-mail) -- May 30th, 2007 | Share - Save - E-mail

With a larger customer-base, it is no surprise that Netflix.com grabs more monthly unique visitors and Attention* than Blockbuster.com. While the new kid on the online block has certainly cut into Netflix’s market share, the incumbent remains the clear leader when using Compete metrics.

What would it take to usurp the king and become #1 in the online DVD rental space? Lower rates didn’t work. In store exchanges hasn’t yet done the trick. So how about free rentals?

Blockbuster appears ready to throw a big punch in this heavyweight bout; according to Business 2.0 the brick-and-mortar movie rental giant is close to a deal with BrightSpot Media that would negate users subscription fees! In exchange, consumers are obligated to watch and provide feedback on a set amount of advertisements per month.

Using monthly People counts as a proxy for user-base, Netflix currently attracts twice the subscribers Blockbuster does. How successful will the pending partnership be in closing the gap on the market leader? It all depends on the BrightSpot experience. BrightSpot is new and still very small; we only have a handful of panelists in our 2 million member community using the service. If consumers don’t mind logging in a couple times a month and watching 30+ advertisements then Netflix had better watch out. Consumers win, media wins, and Blockbuster wins. Who knows, maybe I’ll even give it a shot.

*Attention is the total time spent on a domain as a percentage of the total time spent online by all U.S. internet users.

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Comments

1. annalaura brown
   May 30th, 2007 at 1:52 pm

   why not try it? I subscribe to Netflix and I would try blockbuster under those terms. What a great idea!

2. Keaty
   May 30th, 2007 at 9:22 pm

   I wish they’d let me watch and rate a half an hour of commercials to pay all my bills. I’d sit around and do it for a couple days to take care of rent.

3. Lori
   May 31st, 2007 at 1:00 pm

   Another silly idea coming from Blockbuster as it circles the drain.

   I watch DVDs, own a DVR and have a pop-up blocker to avoid advertisements. I’m not going to deliberately watch a bunch of ads to save myself $20. I’d watch ads to get my mortgage paid, not to save myself the equivalant of a work-week in pocket money for Starbucks.

   The fact remains that, no matter how you slice it, Blockbuster does not have the selection of Netflix, Blockbuster does not have the community feel of Netflix (especially with brand new site updates), and Blockbuster doesn’t have Watch It Now.

   Blockbuster is tanking their brick and mortar business trying to compete with a company that out-preforms them at every turn.

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7. Chad
   December 9th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

   I think Blockbuster could take over Netflix. The only major dislike I have of blockbuster is there lack of movies because they will not putting anything on their shelfs with a higher rating than R, until they stop being so conservative I would never consider using them.

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