Katie MarsalAs part of the deal announced Wednesday, all broadband TiVo subscribers will soon be able to purchase or rent movies from Blockbuster's OnDemand service from their TiVo Series2, Series3, HD, or HD XL digital video recorder (DVR) set-top boxes.
The partnership will also see TiVo DVRs sold at thousands of Blockbuster brick-and-mortar retail stores as well as online at blockbuster.com, offering both parties new distribution outlets as they simultaneously band together to implement a cross-marketing campaign.
Blockbuster's arrival on TiVo will pit it against Netflix and Amazon.com, which already offer digital catalogs to TiVo subscribers. However, the movie rental house believes its catalog will stand out against those of its rivals, which tend to include mostly older titles rather than recent movie theater hits.
The move is also said to be the first of many that will see Blockbuster broaden its reach to embrace the growing demand on the part of consumers to enjoy video at their leisure through a new array of handheld devices and set-top-boxes in the living room.
"You will see us in a large number of other devices going forward," Blockbuster's vice president of digital entertainment Kevin Lewis told Reuters. He added, without providing details, that the company also plans to make its services available on devices sold by Apple.
"We need to be in the normal places that consumers want to watch movies," he said.
In total, about 10,000 movies titles will be available to TiVo subscribers when the integrated service launches some time during the second half of this year. Although pricing details having been announced, Blockbuster currently sells film rentals over its online service for $2 to $4, while movie purchases are priced around $10.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
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Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
57 Comments
In total, about 10,000 movies titles will be available to TiVo subscribers when the integrated service launches some time during the second half of this year.
10,000? Apple only has about 2,500 doesn't it? That's huge.
I hope they do get access to AppleTV. I'd much rather have AppleTV giving me access to a variety of sources (but I'm happy to be forced to use iTunes if any movie is available on both Apple & Blockbuster).
ps.
Blockbuster is about to start movie rentals direct to TiVo in Australia, it was supposed to start in March but now April.
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I don't take that quote to mean that they will be working with the Apple TV at all. Apple only delivers media through iTunes and I can't see how Blockbuster has the contractual right to put movies in iTunes. More than likely he was referring to some kind of Blockbuster application for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
However, it would be a much bigger story if this is a hint that Apple is preparing to release a SDK for the Apple TV like they have for the iPhone which will allow 3rd-parties to run applications on the Apple TV. Now that would really be news!
When this takes off for real, im getting myself a 'rent movies over the internet' thingy for my TV.
I wouldn't put it past Apple to open up AppleTV to blockbuster and others (netflix?). If Apple took 30% of all purchases, they could make a killing off of others' subscription models/rentals. They might have to concede since the movie industry is holding them back (their selections are pathetic). Blockbuster and Netflix would greatly add to their library.
...Apple...might have to concede since the movie industry is holding them back (their selections are pathetic)....
You've got that right. Most of the time when i look for a title it's not available.
Does anyone have stats on how many films are available for rent on AppleTV, Blockbuster, and other competing sources? It seems like that ought to be data someone's tracking.
Apple ought to agree to such a deal, to break the stranglehold the studios have on it.