Slashdot Mirror
Redbox Plans To Launch New Streaming Service 'Redbox Digital' (consumerreports.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Consumer Reports: Redbox, the movie and game-rental kiosk service, might be getting back into the streaming game a few years after its digital streaming service, Redbox Instant, failed. The new Redbox streaming service could be a pay-per-view option for rentals and purchases like Apple iTunes or Vudu. The trade publication Variety -- which broke the story, citing "multiple sources" familiar with the company -- said that the new service will be called Redbox Digital and that Redbox is close to launching a beta of the service.
Compared to a subscription service, negotiating the rights to pay-per-view titles should be easier for Redbox. And since many Redbox streaming customers already use their site to search for and reserve titles, it would be much more convenient for them to be able to immediately order a digital version. Another potential benefit would be the price of the rentals. The reason why physical Redbox kiosks are popular is because the $1.50 rental price for DVDs, and $2 rental price for Blu-ray discs are relatively cheap. Redbox Digital may gain some attraction if, and only if, there are considerable savings for users, otherwise there would be little reason to choose Redbox over a more established pay-per-view service, such as Amazon Instant, Google Play, or Vudu.
FP?
> Redbox Plans To Launch New Streaming Service 'Redbox Digital'
They should call it RedTube.
Netflix was successful specifically because it was a flat rate. People are done getting nickled and dimed to death by hollywood for content. Pay per view will fail like every other service that has attempted it.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
why not? you can still buy new VHS VCRs.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
How is it possible this story fails to use the word "netflix"? Redbox is nice and I use it when I want burst mode on my DVDs that I can't get from Netflix but it so far has few things netflix doesn't and netlfix is cheaper. Redbox also get expensive when you screw up, and indeed that happens. Netflix is slowly calving off it's DVD from its streaming service. I assume there is a financial logic here but at face value that's dumb. Integrate them. They open the door for Redbox more by doing that. BUT, here's why I'm pretty sure they are splitting them. If they are separate then the content producers can't charge them more for a DVD than it's face value, and they can even negotiate for less than face value. But if they are integrated the producers can hold the streaming service hostage to claw even more cash for the DVD rentals. Redbox is opening themselves up to this blackmail on their core rental bussiness if they make streaming and rentals combined.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Wait till they implement FlexPricing TM...
"Demand is off the charts! Charges have increased to get more movies on the Intertubes
OR
"Demand for your requested movie has fallen. As rights-holders don't release content for less than $10,000 a day, your account has been automatically charged $115.99 to cover costs of this content. Please speak to customer service for 30 minutes if you no longer wish to view this movie.
Perhaps they are going to copy VidAngel. They have a system that effectively allows $1 streaming rentals ($2 for HD) of movies, including new releases. Redbox could potentially copy this idea, especially since VidAngel filters their movies because they want to claim to be a family friendly business.
My family rents a Redbox video maybe twice per month, meaning we spend about $3-$4. Netflix is $9 for the service itself, so just on that Netflix costs more.
In addition, although faster internet with higher caps is certainly available, we have no reason to pay for it since we don't stream movies. Upgrading the internet would be another $20 per month or whatever. So really Netflix would cost us $29/month, if we used to more than a couple times per month.
With our current internet we can stream once or twice per month, so we'll stream Redbox if it's the same $1-$2 price range.
Stream once or twice per month? How low is your monthly data cap? Do you browse the Web without images or what?
Stream once or twice per month? How low is your monthly data cap?
Data allowances of satellite and fixed cellular Internet service, popular in rural areas unserved by DSL or cable, are on the order of 10 GB per month. (Sources: Exede; Verizon)
Because of the language? Not the violence? [...] I suspect he's associating with Conservative Christians.
Likely. The Bible is full of violence and sex. But there's really only one word in the whole thing that can arguably be called a swear word: In Philippians 3:8, Paul refers to his old life before Christ as "shit" (Greek skubalon). I think they call that a "precision F-strike".
Who the fuck pays $15 to rent a movie that you can get at RedBox for $2?
It depends. Redbox has a movie for about a year, after which the $15 has no competition. Brick-and-mortar video stores used to have a new release wall surrounding a "catalog" floor, but Redbox drove them out of business and has no space for "catalog" titles.
> Stream once or twice per month?
We rent a movie once or twice per month. We could stream it instead of renting on DVD.
> How low is your monthly data cap?
I didn't say we could ONLY stream once or twice per month. I don't actually recall what the soft cap is, but I've hit it before, so our typical usage isn't too far from the (soft) cap.
> Do you browse the Web without images or what?
An image might be 10 KB or so (depending on the image). A Netflix movie is about 3,800,000 KB. So one movie is the equivalent of 380,000 images. Streaming HD video is orders of magnitude more bandwidth/data intensive than other uses of the internet.
You're fortunate to have Century Link. In many (all?) of the areas they cover, they aren't a legally- enforced monopoly. Instead they are competing with the old monopoly providers, much like Google fiber does. They provide better service at better prices than the providers who are guaranteed a monopoly under the law. (Or virtually guaranteed. In some places, it's legal to provide service, but it's not legal to run the cables required to offer internet service.)
Images on the Web, 10KB or so? Are you only viewing websites from 1996? I often encounter multi-megabytes JPEG backgrounds and "retina" photos that have four times as many pixels as my display. So it's more like 3800 images. Still less, but not as low as you seem to think.
Hopefully they will have more selection than a few good movies and a bunch of B movies that no one has ever heard of, like the kiosks seem to have.