Blockbuster busts into movie downloading with Movielink acquisition
Blockbuster Inc. has moved into the emerging arena of movie downloading with the acquisition of Movielink LLC, a service created by five Hollywood studios that has thousands of movies and TV shows available for delivery via the web to PCs and other devices. The deal positions Blockbuster to compete with Netflix, which began offering movies and other content for downloading early this year.
Movielink has licensed content for rental and purchase from the five founding studios as well as 30 other studios, television-content distributors and foreign and independent content providers. Blockbuster says it will continue to operate the Movielink service, which offers downloads from movielink.com, and eventually make elements of it available through Blockbuster.com. Blockbuster did not say how much it was paying for Movielink.
“Blockbuster is committed to keeping pace with the changing needs of customers by offering them an expanding array of convenient ways to access entertainment content,” says Jim Keys, chairman and CEO of Blockbuster, No. 51 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. “Our acquisition of Movielink, with its associated digital content, is the next logical step in our planned transformation of Blockbuster. Now in addition to the entertainment content we provide through our stores and by mail, we have taken an important step toward being able to make movie downloading conveniently available to computers, portable devices and ultimately to the television at home.”
Movielink was created in 2002 as a joint venture of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Studios. Movielink charges $1.99 to $4.99 for most movie rentals, allowing the consumer to store the film for 30 days and to watch it over any 24-hour period.
Netflix, No. 18 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, reported last month that it had delivered 5 million downloads over the web in the first six months of offering its download service. Netflix has 2,000 titles available for download.
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