Posted on 01/02/2010 1:27:23 PM PST by SamAdams76
OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill., Jan. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Redbox, the fully-automated DVD rental provider located at the nation's leading grocery, mass, drug and convenience stores, rented more than two million DVDs on New Year's Eve surpassing the Company's previous one day rental record by more than one-hundred-seventy-thousand rentals. "District 9," "G-Force," "Paranormal Activity" and "Julie & Julia" were among the night's top rentals. With more than 19,000 locations nationwide, consumers have embraced the convenience, fun and value of redbox.
"With many Americans celebrating New Year's Eve at home and many more resolving to save money in 2010, redbox proved a great way to do both," said Gary Cohen, senior vice president, marketing and customer experience. "Renting a record-breaking two million DVDs in a single night, redbox looks forward to continuing to provide consumers with incredible value and convenience in the New Year."
In 2009, redbox surpassed 350 million rentals nationwide. Redbox makes DVD renting easy, affordable and fun. Located at select McDonald's restaurants, leading grocery and convenience stores, and Walmart and Walgreens locations in select markets, each fully automated redbox kiosk holds 630 DVDs, representing up to 200 of the newest releases. Consumers simply use a touch screen to select their favorite movies, swipe a valid credit or debit card and go. Customers can keep the DVD for as long as they'd like for one low nightly rate, and return it to any one of redbox's more than 19,000 locations nationwide.
For added convenience, customers can reserve a DVD online at www.redbox.com or via an iPhone and pick it up at the redbox location of their choice.
Red Box will eventually have to change when DVDs go the way of the dinosaur. With Red Boxes connected to next gen wi-fi or cable modems, you could simply down load your movies (or games) into a portable thumb-drive then plug it into your computer, XBOX or TV.
By 2020, portable thumb-drives will have so much memory capacity, dependability and micro architecture, they will essentially become your “computer” (just plug it into your “dummy” monitor and start typing).
My answer to Redbox — a service called Starzplay, offered by Verizon. It’s 5.95 a month, and you can download as many mov ies as you want to your computer. The movies aren’t exactly current — but nearly current, and I’ve yet to watch a movie on the service I didn’t like.
That blogger thinks such pressures will mean Hollywood will become less crazy and will have to appeal to a broader, more mature audience. Young teens won't have big allowances in this economy, and the young male market is dominated by video games.
2010 - Netflix, Redbox beats estimates.
2010 - Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, and Movie Gallery continue to deal with bankruptcy.
Many years ago I did have the idea of Video To Go. I figured someone might want to get a movie in their pajamas late night.
Glad someobe did it, I didn’t.
Starzplay works great. I just wish it worked with my iPhone and other portable devices.
They add $1 a day for any DVD not returned by 9PM the next night - up to a maximum of $25 - then the movie is considered to be a sale.
I missed out on pet rocks.
That is convenient, but some people probably want to watch it on a bigger screen. (How big is the touch screen?)
With the apple adapter I watch them on my TV
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB129LL/B?fnode=MTY1NDA0OQ&mco=MTA4MjUwMzk
Redbox is excellent and very convenient. It’s the best way to rent new and relatively new releases. At $1 a night the price is right. I’ll grab ‘The Final Destination’ on Tuesday when it is released, for example. Not worth going to the theater for, and indeed not worth going out of my way either, but it beats tv.
For older titles, I can usually get them at my library. I reserve them and they email me when it comes in. I go to the library once a week at least anyway, so I can get as many as 7 DVDs at a time.
True, I can’t get everything, but it covers most of my viewing. The library also has new titles but for those you sometimes have to wait a month or more. Redbox is the easy fix for that problem.
I’ve been a fan of Redbox since the day I first saw one of their machines, a fee years ago.
We are members of Netflix, but sometimes, we just decide we want something different on the spur of the moment. We also use the Redbox as info for what movies are being released, then we go home and put the ones in which we’re interested on our Netflix list. ;o)
Our daughter pointed out something the other day that I hadn't considered. Since you can return a movie to any other Redbox, you could use the service while traveling. If you have a laptop, or a DVD player in your vehicle, it makes for more interesting travel for the kids, or even yourself, when you get to your hotel on the road, and aren't sure about TV reception. You could scout out Redbox locations before your trip, or look them up online along the way, so you'll know where to find one to pick up, and then later, to return it.
I'd seen this with books at truckstops; pick it up at one, and drop it off somewhere along the way.
“Of course, we will eventually be streaming this content directly into our own homes someday, but I still think it is years away before many of us have the bandwidth for that. In the meantime, a window of opportunity exists for Redbox (or whoever else figures out how to do this) to pretty much take over the movie rental business.”
The technology and infrastructure are here already. Unfortunately the copyright holders have not created a legel way to use it.
“Same thing could be done for books. High speed printers and binders, rather than huge buildings that warehouse books.”
Or someone could invent a low power device that could store and display multiple books.
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