Newsletters
Facebook
RSS Feed
EH Store
Redbox president Michael Lowe thinks the time and price is ready for kiosk Blu-ray rentals.
Blu-ray discs are coming to Redbox kiosks within the next few months for $1.50-per-night, announced Redbox president Mitch Lowe at the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy Edge Conference.
That’s $0.50 more per night than the DVD rental price.
The announcement comes on the heels of Redbox securing deals with Universal, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. to supply their films to Redbox kiosks 28 days after their original street date. These deals are in response to studios and distributors refusing to sell direct to Redbox at street-date to preserve sell-through often lost to low-cost rentals.
“We’re really excited about our studio relationships, which has been a big change from last year,” Lowe says.
Lowe says he thinks Blu-ray will succeed at Redbox kiosks, adding that 16.9 percent of Redbox customers own a Blu-ray player and Redbox has a 23 percent share of the rental market.
Lowe says Redbox is not hurting studio sales, but actually helping. “We’re going to be driving awareness of your product to purchase where we’re at,” Lowe says.
+1 on being amazed at people who knock Blu-ray as “not much of an improvement”! Whether or not Blu-ray is “dying” is a whole ‘nuther debate, but as per performance and actual specs, there cannot be any real debate. $1.50 for a Blu-ray at RedBox is brilliant and more than welcome!
I’m still amazed that I read posts talking about how Blu-Ray doesn’t offer much of an improvement over regular DVD. I have to assume that the people posting these things have never actually taken the time to do a side-by-side comparison between the two formats.
Blu rays are dying because they are too expensive and its really not much of an improvement over regular DVD’s, REDBOX has supposedly been offering blu rays for at least a year now but I have never seen one
- News
- Cool Homes
- Blogs
- Photo Galleries
Phorus and Blumoo Offer Easy, Wireless Audio
One is a subsidiary of DTS, with the other looking to gain traction via Indiegogo.
Family Theater Beams with Durable LED Projection
A SIM2 Mico 50 LED projector and 110-inch screen shine in this room.
Brighter LCD TVs on the Horizon?
3M technology poised to boost the vibrancy and richness of colors on LCD screens.
22 Outdoor Speakers for a Sizzling Summer
We take a peek at some of the current options for outdoor audio.
I have done the comparisons and I have to tell you that BR is not that much of an improvement. I have a PS3 that does a fantastic job of up-converting DVDs. The main improvement BR offers me is the sound. Here again though, the improvement isn’t “night and day”. In fact the HBR lossy soundtracks sent to my older Rotel AVR is IMHO better than the lossless soundtracks sent over HDMI to my 2yr old Integra. (The thing to remember here is to not let people tell you that “all amps sound the same”. The yahoos over at AVSforums have that base covered.)
I think some people want BR to be better and have bought into the hype so it is better in their minds. If most people were to participate in a properly administered test, I think the results would startle them. Most wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.