Will Blockbuster Remain Lackluster?

Simple as this: If you do not roll with the changes, you will be flattened.

If blockbuster cannot adapt, then they will disappear. Laundromats used to be a huge business, and then people bought residential washers and driers. Although they still thrive, their business isn't as bright as it once was.

Blockbuster will disappear and new places will take its place. Even though they will be the only rental option for a month after a new movie is out, they cannot compete with the convenience of online ordering. They are doomed.

Yea good point, I think Blockbuster does have a chance to turn themselves around, but it is unlikely with the way they have been going.

One thing about running a company is to recognize and make adjustments to the market before anyone else (competition)

One saw this coming when they had mail order video rentals like Netflix. I did think it was a good idea that you can go into the store or return them direct to the store and pick up a new one.

BUT, I was already subscribed to Netflix.

And if you or potential customers compares yourself (blockbuster) to Netflix you are already behind in the game.

p911

Blockbuster's best chance to stay in business.

yes....do you carry beta cassettes

Blockbuster is very late in bringing their change but creating Kiosks in addition to improving their mail in dvd system might give them a chance. Netflix has mail order dvds and an online databse, redbox has kiosks, blockbuster will have mail in dvds, online movies, kiosks, and newly released movies almost a month before redbox/netflix.

I personally would prefer blockbuster if they would have a membership where you could make use of all of these features for a monthly fee. I have tried netflix, but sometimes I prefer walking around the store to choose my movie, and redbox is convenient but I dont like their selection that much.

I think if Blockbuster goes out of business it's because they didn't try to understand their own business.

I remember when I was young (late 80's and 90's), I used to love renting movies and video games, especially games, because I couldn't afford to buy them. It was $2-3 for 3 days.

Last time I went to Blockbuster which was a few years ago, it was $7 to rent a movie for 7 days. Why rent for $7 when I can buy for $15? Who needs a movie rental for 7 days? I feel like they try to justify their high prices by giving you the movie longer but when most people rent a movie they only need it for a night or two.

Thats what we were talking about, just be a subscriber, pay a flat month fee. with different levels, 1, 2,3 or 4, movies or games at a time, that can be streamed in, picked-up/dropped off at the store. but they are behind in the game and lost market share.

And do not know what there financial situation is to be able to turn it around. because by the time they get it to were they want it to be today, things would have change. They can't seem to see that.

CEO should be responsible for that.

I agree. I used to work in a plaza where there was a Blockbuster and I loved renting movies until they raised their prices. I'd return it the next day, so at that point it would've been more cost effective for me to go to the movie theatre in my town.

As others have indicated, by not adapting to their changing market they had this coming.

There is definitely a life-cycle trajectory to any product or business model. They need to get into something new. All the drive-in movies are gone, and large screen movie theaters have suffered. If they rented out virtual reality suits for interacting with the upcoming 3d tech, they might survive. but they must do something new.. vhs is gone. dvd is not far behind. cd music is also pretty much gone. before that was tape, then vinyl, then 78's, and before that, cylinders, and before that, wire.

Chris

Hard copy media is a dying industry. Anyone investing heavily into it, or not planning an effective exit strategy is going to get burned. I expect that within ten years all media will reside in volatile memory and the only thing of permanent nature that will remain will be whatever the user has collected over the previous years. Storefronts are becoming a liability. Certainly there will still be some form of one-on-one interaction, as people are social animals and there is a market for sociability. However, the nature of this edifice is what remains to be developed. The company who gets a rein on this dragon will be the one to best ride the beast. -Illya

Were I to be hired as a consultant to reorder Blockbuster, I would have to compare its debt to the debt of the newcomers, put that up against what it actually owns, then determine what to sell, and what to keep.

The international situation would be a key focus for me, in my consultancy. There may be nations where the operating procedures appropriate to the past are the present.

Course it is unlikely that there is a nation in the world awash with videotape machines so the pivotal factor is related to the delivery hardware.

Typically pornography leads trends as far as the marriage of media distribution matching needs and desires, with the available best and cheapest hardware. All video rental stores of the brick and mortar variety were founded and will even long have appeal if they distribute what is otherwise unavailable.

Still there are skews and aspects of the business affected by the content of the production. Essentially for the modern urban human being living in a box, the television screen replaces the fireplace, or grandma and grandpa. Pornography leads to children due to its inspirational content.

Children are in constant need of entertainment for we must protect and serve them, and they cannot actually work yet. So then the base of the movie industry is always and forever will be love stories and children's movies.

If you really want your media distribution company to day in and day out stay in business, do what the porno people do. Then provide content at the other end of the scale, ie. fill the real need for entertainment that exists in children who are not to be given a box of matches to play with.

P.S. Nobody paid me to write this. It has been an area of my studies and experiences much complicated by laws and theft of intellectual property. There are media markets skewed by theft that make a freerider situation and cause extreme skews of straightforward business only comparable to aviation in its insanity.

All video rental stores are doomed to fail once IP TV gets a grip over the next few years. Samsung, Sony and Panasonic are one of the first to produce IP capable TVs (so hold off on even buying the IP set-top boxes). IP TV is like 'on-demand' TV. You'll be able to watch TV shows and movies when you want.

I believe that this will also starve such outfits as foxtel where they charge you as if you were watching all (100's) of channels at the same time 24hrs per day. Foxtel should also revisit their charges policy and adapt otherwise they too may feel the pinch.

Yay IP TV...now to get the government to get the NBN (National Broadband Network) up and installing already.