Blockbuster files for bankruptcy in Portugal, blames internet piracy
By Thomas Ricker 
posted February 10th 2010 7:44AM
posted February 10th 2010 7:44AM
Update: There were once 27 Blockbuster stores in Portugal, not 100. The 100 number from the machine translation is the approximate number of employees at risk of losing their jobs.
[Thanks, Alex P. and Eric L.]
@pafmax . Hear Hear. Lack of foresight= lack of future. No one is crying for Blockbuster, they had so much time to catch up.
Well between P2P and them reinstating their late fees who the hell would use blockbuster now? Speaking of P2P, I'm gonna go watch Kill Bill Vol 2 which I downloaded last night.
I like blockbuster more than netflick. If only they could let you watch movies online.
Karma is a bi@#H. Consider this payback for all those outrageous late fees, poor stock of media, and overpriced popcorn you've been subjecting us all those years. But don't worry, the Management will walk away compensated and will be gobbled up by other evil corps. Don't let the door hit you "too hard" on the way out :)
Portugal is actually very strong in triple play: one contract for telephone, mobile phone and tv - and the companies most often throw in some good movies via cable. also they have an excellent choice of tv-channels, including movie-only-chans from the US. as p2p in portugal is mostly limited by within-the-border-traffic-only-flatrates, and people don't have much money to begin with, it's no wonder noone will pay for rented movies.
it's a totally different situation than in other countries, blockbuster should have done better market research before opening.
Piracy probably didn't help. But whenever I go into a Blockbuster, they're always out of the movie that I want. How the hell can a video store be out of the blu-ray of a movie as big as Iron Man?
Your Article is INACCURATE.
http://dn.sapo.pt/inicio/artes/interior.aspx?content_id=1490891&seccao=Cinema
The company which operates Blockbuster franchises in Portugal, Lano Video S. A, will seek bankruptsy protection, or the equivalent. Based on the comments, your misleading article has led your readers to misinterprete the facts. You can copy and paste the link above and use Google's translate function to read what is probably closer to reality.
Portugal is very poorly evolved in the renting business!
just check out the portuguese version of netflix and laugh at the stupid prices and delivery times: https://www.blueplanetdvd.com:443/app/cliapp/Entry.tea
if there was a service like http://www.lovefilm.com/ i think people would rent more and pirate less.
Every time you download internet porn, God kills a blockbuster store.
So next time, please... think of the blockbuster stores.
I don't know about others, but I left Blockbuster because they were ripping people off. A few years back they introduced the no late fees policy, and I was happy with it, until they changed it, neglected to put the new policy on their receipts, and store employees missed to mention it to anybody. I had to pay over $100 in late fees, so I switched to Netflix, and never gave them a cent.
Is that why Netflix is doing so well?
id better pay fee for usenet then to pay rental fees to those robbers !! bet real, rent movies for less then $ and sell movies for less then 5$ and I never hit search in my newsleecher software. And I bet, tons of other ppl will follow me
It's all about online content now. And if Blockbuster isn't able to find a way to put those movies/shows online ASAP and interact with Sony, XBox 360, and yes, Apple, they will completely go out of business.
Piracy has nothing to do with this. It's called Netflix and Hulu. Get your facts straight Blockbuster. I don't even know anyone who pirates movies anymore
Where is my "Blockbuster Set-top-box" or media center add-on?
Dear Blockbuster, you may want to serve us (Europeans) with movies, like other movie rental stores, who are now operating online.
Hi everyone.
Greetings from Lisboa, Portugal.
I do have a BB card for years and years. But I do not use it. BB is very expensive and you have to deliver the product 24h later. Otherwise you have to pay a fine.
Portugal is the 1st european country embracing new tecnologies. We are gadget freaks, we do invent a lot of them (and nobody knows it). So its normal to choose pay-tv, online video renting, video stores on tv, etc, instead of going out and rent from BB.
Piracy in Portugal is a reality as it is around the world. P2P rocks with younger generations. But this is a reality for 10 years now. The main issue here are the high prices and stupid politics on BB.
They didn´t change, the other services did (fiber tv, online videostores, etc). Also, we do have a lot of electronic megastores, like Fnac, Worten, Vobis, etc, wich are selling dvds for a nice price. Instead of paying near 4€ for a one day rental, people do prefer to pay 10 or 15€ to own the dvd forever.
Glad to participate!
Be Happy.