Blockbuster downloads to be available through TiVo
DVRs will be sold at video-rental chain's stores
By Danny King -- Video Business, 3/25/2009
MARCH 25 | Blockbuster and TiVo reached an agreement to have the video-rental chain's digital titles downloadable to TVs through TiVo's digital video recorders, following a similar agreement TiVo reached with Netflix four months ago.
Blockbuster OnDemand titles will be downloadable through TiVo's Series2, Series3, HD and HD XL DVRs by the second half of this year, the companies said in a statement today.
Blockbuster, the largest U.S. video-rental chain, also will sell TiVo DVRs at "thousands" of stores as well as on the Blockbuster.com Web site.
Blockbuster said last week that it planned to make its video-on-demand service available through a wider range of electronics components this year. Late last year, Blockbuster started selling a set-top box that plays digital downloads from Blockbuster.com directly on consumers' TV sets. The retailer integrated its acquired Movielink digital download service into Blockbuster.com in July.
In January, the company agreed to join with online movie service CinemaNow to create Blockbuster Powered by CinemaNow, which will start delivering movies to Blu-ray Disc players, Internet-connected TVs, mobile phones and even the iPhone later this year. The multi-year preferred provider agreement between Blockbuster and Sonic Solutions, which acquired CinemaNow late last year, will put the rental giant on some of the same devices through which its main online rival, Netflix, has already begun streaming its own digital content.
"We are excited to be teaming with TiVo, the company that created the DVR, to make Blockbuster’s entertainment content readily available to their millions of subscribers," Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes said in the statement.
Last October, TiVo reached an agreement with Netflix, the largest U.S. movie-rental service via mail, to have Netflix's digital titles stream directly to TVs through TiVo DVRs. In July 2007, TiVo DVRs began offering downloaded content from Amazon's Video On Demand service.
TiVo said the Blockbuster agreement has no bearing on agreements TiVo has with Netflix, Amazon or any other content provider.
Blockbuster last week reported it had a fiscal fourth-quarter loss on a $435 million impairment charge. The retailer plans to cut costs for at least the early part of this year on items such as retail inventory and capital expenditures, as Blockbuster looks to reduce its debt by about $100 million to comply with a new refinancing agreement.
In addition to digitally delivered titles, Blockbuster is trying to boost revenue through both agreements with NCR to develop movie-rental kiosks and an expanded choice of in-store subscription plans.
