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Get Ready for Blockbuster Express
November 14, 2007

When Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes shared with analysts last week his long-term strategy to transition the video rental giant into a multi-faceted entertainment brand, he said many of the most visible changes to retail stores would be seen in the first quarter of next year.

Changes include updating stores to make them more tech-focused with "downloading stations" and lounge areas. He also said the company would roll out kiosks at airports and shopping malls.

It appears the retailer is wasting little time. A "Blockbuster Express" shingle has apparently been hung on a commercial building in Columbus, Ohio that was being leased by a startup kiosk company, called E-Play LLC.

A Columbus-based reporter emailed to say that he spotted a Blockbuster-branded kiosk offering $1 rentals inside the former e-Play headquarters.

Video Business covered e-Play last October, when its CEO Alan Rudy said the startup was testing DVD sell-through kiosks in fast food restaurants Wendy’s and White Castle and mass merchant Meijer’s. He said they would eventually use kiosks to sell film downloads to personal media devices and downloads to be burned onto DVD.

In February, e-Play received a $200,000 business development grant from the state's economic development department to build and deploy download to burn kiosks at gas stations, shopping malls and restaurants.

The e-Play website is still up, but the listed phone numbers aren't working. A call to Rudy at his other company, a business incubator called "Into Great Companies" hasn't been returned.

Blockbuster spokesman Randy Hargrove said that Blockbuster hasn't acquired E-Play. He told the reporter in Columbus that the company was aligning itself with someone but declined to name them.

He also appeared to confirm in a separate email that Blockbuster is indeed deploying an unspecified number of kiosks.

"Blockbuster is exploring new and additional ways to provide consumers with convenient access to media entertainment, and that includes exploring the distribution of DVDs through vending machines," Hargrove said in an email to Video Business Tuesday. "We have not acquired e-Play and have not disclosed the number of Blockbuster branded vending machines, locations or other details. Blockbuster is transitioning from being a place for DVD rental to being a brand that enables customers to get their media entertainment however they want."

Blockbuster earlier this summer purchased Movielink for $7 million, which owns the digital rights to 6,000 movie titles.

Posted by Ned Randolph on November 14, 2007 | Comments (0)