Blockbuster buys Movielink

We heard it was going to happen, and it did: Blockbuster bought Movielink for an undisclosed sum, surely to compliment its online offerings to better compete with arch-nemesis Netflix in the internet movie distribution game. And surely if it did sell for the piddly $50 mil figure being tossed around before, the barrier to this entry is just a drop in the bucket for the big blue movie rental giant.

[Thanks, Philip]

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 2:17AM]

Amazing, since Blockbuster owns a joint stake in competitor Cinema Now.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 2:20AM]

"for an undisclosed sum, surely to compliment its online"

'complEment' :)

[Mr Ambiguous Posted Aug 9th 2007 1:03PM]

No, they definitely meant compliment.

Movielink: Ooh. I just love your online offerings. Your library of movies is so huge.

Blockbuster: That's not all that's huge baby.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 3:01AM]

'the barrier to this entry is just a drop in the bucket for the big "blue movie" rental giant.' LOL :P

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 3:03AM]

Well now we are pretty much sure where that Sony BD deal money went.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 6:40AM]

I seriously doubt Sony paid them THAT much if anything.............lol

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 11:59AM]

so does this mean blockbuster will start offering a "watch now" feature where you can download movies and watch them on your computer? or is movielink something totally different?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 12:00PM]

when i say "watch now" i am referring to what netflix is doing...just to clarify.....

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 10th 2007 2:09PM]

Movielink is a few years ahead of the Netflix online offering. However I am sure this doesn't give Blockbuster an advantage because I doubt there is a lot of loyalty to the existing MovieLink customer base (kind of expensive and not the greatest video quality)

I admit, it is nice to be able to download and watch movies with MovieLink. Especially since you can watch the movies via your XBOX 360. The 30 day rental period is nice as well. I only hope that Blockbuster makes the video quality better as well as make it more competitive to rent.

[Eliot2000 Posted Aug 12th 2007 11:29PM]

bet there's a team of people working at Blockbuster working out how to apply late fees to downloaded content.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 12:26PM]

They certainly did NOT buy it to "compliment" their online offerings. They probably bought it to complEment their online offerings.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 12:30PM]

Damn validation system

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 1:37PM]

Cheers to BB!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2007 8:54PM]

lets hope at least they work on mac soon

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2007 5:22PM]

Unsubstantiated media reports have this thing going at $20M. Not a bad deal. I think Netflix spent $40M or so to get theirs up and launched?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2007 5:22PM]

Some suggest Blockbuster acted too late but I disagree. I posted a commentary on that here: http://mediatrending.com/2007/08/11/oh-to-have-entered-the-vod-market-2-years-ago/