Yesterday Coinstar, the parent company of Redbox, the 35,400-kiosk-strong movie-rental service, announced a joint venture with Verizon to provide a subscription-based streaming video service, thus positioning the companies in direct competition with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. Coinstar also announced that it would acquire NCR's entertainment business, which includes its former rival Blockbuster Express, adding more than 9,000 kiosks to Redbox's roster around the country.
Now new details about the combined companies' plans have emerged. First, it's clear the companies are adamant about bringing a combined physical and digital offering to market, rather than streaming-only or DVD-only plans like Netflix. "To have a partner that sees our vision, and thinks, yes, you could do something streaming-only, but we'll be so much more successful to consumers if we have both together--that was really what Verizon's take was," says Scott Di Valerio, CFO of Coinstar and interim president of Redbox. "Streaming is great--it's really exciting," Di Valerio told us yesterday, "[but] we think there is a bright future in physical."
Still, specifics surrounding what Redbox's future might look like are sparse--company executives remained especially vague during yesterday's earnings call for competitive reasons, they said. And other than a brand-new website called RedboxVerizonProject.com, which teases that "something fun is coming," few details have been released about Redbox's upcoming subscription service with Verizon, slated to be unveiled in the second half of 2012.
Asked whether the subscription service, then, would include DVDs-by-kiosk or possibly DVDs-by-mail, Di Valerio says the company does "not have a vision of doing a by-mail service. Think about a subscription where you have 'Nights at the Kiosk' for new release content, and then be able to have your streaming--more of your library content."
Meanwhile Redbox SVP of finance, Galen Smith, ind...
[Source: Fast Company]
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