I also believe there are other factors which will contribute to Blockbuster's demise:
Their support of full frame whether than widescreen movies for rental.
Their continued support of the rent through video pricing rather than the $20 MSRP of owning in the DVD market vs. VHS.
slow adoption of the DVD market.
Their support of the failed CC DIVX model which most DVD player owners were against.
I hate full screen format. I much prefer the widescreen format movie, be it the new movies or the old classics on Turner Classic Movies.
Marajade,
You wrote:
"Their support of full frame whether than widescreen movies for rental."
I'm with you completely on this one. Why would anyone want to watch a "full-screen" version of a movie? Watch it the way it was intended.
My wife and I are big movie buffs, but even she had a tough time at first with "wide-screen". She couldn't get past the feeling that something was being cut off (the black bars top and bottom) until I showed her that it was actually in "full screen" that a part of the picture was being cropped. She's never looked back.
Brian
LOL, try convincing someone to buy one of those pieces of crap. The year before I left CC for good, they rolled those things out. Very, very high commissions for the sales person on the DIVX models with practically non-existant ones on the regular DVD players. Add to that a managerial 'request' to focus selling only DIVX models it was a recipe for disaster for customers as well as salespeople there.