I could not help by think of Blockbuster when we had a discussion about video games in class. Blockbuster is now providing customers with video games directly shipped to their house. But what is it about video games that attracts people? I believe it is the fact that you can become somebody else and do things that you could not in real life. It is however the question of influence of these games that might be troubling. How much do games really affect us? Can they really lead people to violence? I believe that video games are a part of our experience and that even though they might not result in violence they do ultimately add to who we are as a person. According to the movie "Game Over" the video games are a part of our environment and our environment shapes who we are. Now to get deeper on the issue with Blockbuster:
What really caught my attention this week is the controversy surrounding the Netflix Company. Not only Netflix decided to split the company into two parts that will provide two different types of service that used to be under one bundle they also decided to raise the prices not only to the new customers but also to the already existing members. What was the result of such actions? Millions of dollars and customers lost due to poor public relations solutions.
Although I am talking about Netflix it is not my main target. I am looking at the overall market when it comes down to the streaming and DVD services. We now know that blockbuster has been ALMOST out of the business, but it looks like they are not ready to give up yet. Blockbuster has not only created a DVD rental service, online streaming service so called “Total Access” but now is also became a part of Dish Network. This video streaming service is limited to the subscribers of the Dish Network provider.
So not only we have Netflix and RedBox, now we also have Blockbuster pushing the competitors to move ahead. All this makes me wonder what is going to happen since Netflix is facing big issue regarding their prices as well as the service that is not really convenient to the customers.
Could Blockbuster come back by trying to come back by targeting the customers through different types of service?
Here is an interesting video:Netflix vs. Blockbuster: Tips from Consumer Reports - YouTube
I believe that it is all a question of the price as well as the inventory. Who has the biggest and the up-to-date movies? Besides the prices being the problem with Netflix I believe they have created somewhat of a bad reputation that was created by their “apology” letter to the customers that was after all not as much an apology.
Who do you think is going to be able to target the market and the audience successfully? What do you think is going to be the biggest a challenge for Blockbuster compared to Netflix?
For some reason I am a big fan of RedBox. I think their prices are great and I can rent as many DVDs as I can. I can return them easily and the new movies are available pretty quickly. What is your opinion? Is RedBox even comparable to the Netflix and Blockbuster service? What do you think do customers prefer and why?
You can find some additional info here: Blockbuster Movie Pass bundles Dish with streaming video - Sep. 23, 2011
Works Cited
Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.) (2008) Gender, Race, Class and Media (Third Edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Game Over. movie
Pepitone, J., (September 23, 2011). Blockbuster launches Netflix streaming rival -- sort of.CNNMoney. Retrieved on September 24, 2011 from http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/23/technology/blockbuster_streaming/index.htm
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