AUG. 26 | NCR and movie-kiosk company The New Release this month reached an agreement in which NCR will help boost the number of TNR and Moviecube machines for closely held The New Release by about 60% by the end of next year.
NCR, the world's largest automated-teller-machine maker, also acquired a minority stake in The New Release in terms that weren't disclosed.
NCR will make as many as 1,400 new kiosks by 2010 for the No. 2 movie-rental kiosk company, behind Redbox. The New Release, which said in February that it received about $11 million in funding to add about 1,000 machines by the end of the year, has 2,200 kiosks, or about one-fifth of Redbox's machines.
MCG Capital, which earlier this year provided $11 million in funding, and NCR combined to pay $17 million for an undisclosed stake in TNR, said TNR CEO Tim Belton, who added that the new machines will be primarily installed in existing grocery partners such as Kroger, Loblaws and H-E-B.
"It allows us to invest in several growth initiatives," said Belton, noting that the software in many of TNR's existing machines also will be switched out for NCR components.
Belton added that, like Blockbuster's, the machines are capable of selling digital downloads, but such a service is unlikely to be included before 2010. He also said TNR might start renting Blu-ray discs by next year.
NCR continues to gain customers in a kiosk market that’s expected to pull sales from traditional movie-rental stores during the next few years. U.S. consumers will spend $800 million at kiosks by 2010, triple the amount spent last year, according to Convergence Consulting Group. Meanwhile, store rental revenue, estimated at $5.4 billion last year, will fall to $3.1 billion by 2010, according to Convergence.
Earlier this month, U.S. movie-rental leader Blockbuster said NCR will make as many as 10,000 Blockbuster-branded installed machines by early 2010. The machines will let customers rent DVDs and eventually might let consumers buy discs and make digital-downloads of certain titles, the companies said.
Last month, NCR acquired a minority stake in closely held kiosk maker E-Play in an agreement that will add several thousand self-service DVD-trading machines in GameStop, Dollar Tree and other U.S. retailers within the next few years.
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