Blockbuster Online Review — Rent Movies Online, Return/Exchange Them at Store
Blockbuster Online, in heavy competition with Netflix–who we previously reviewed–have created a similar, albeit different, business model out of renting movies online. But, before we dig into the details, we feel it is important to mention why Blockbuster’s model is slowly becoming less and less desirable. Quite frankly, Blockbuster is slowing down as the competition is picking up.
Blockbuster has been pounded by debt. Despite posting revenues of 910 million in the third quarter of 2008, even as the recession was deemed to be in full swing, Blockbuster’s revenues still appeared tepid over industry figures from Q3 2008, which showed a decrease in revenue of 21%, from 1.1 billion recorded the year prior. As competitors such as Netflix continue to grow and expand, Blockbuster has been left in a position that has forced them to make drastic changes, just to stay afloat. With revenues ending at 74% less than Netflix in 2008 — the time was now.
Stores have been closed and inventories slashed, as Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes made the move, with the swift closing of over a store a day in 2009, totaling 374 stores. With this number only expected to climb in 2010, possibly reaching quadruple digit store closings by year end, you would be apt to count them out, but think again.
Despite being forced to weather the recession and downsize it’s stores and inventory, Blockbuster has made some productive moves — most notably helping expand their Blockbuster Online service. What has been done to help?
More Kiosks
Since Blockbuster has closed a somewhat sizable number of stores nationwide, and only looks to continue in the near future, they needed shift their thinking to other ways to get their DVDs by mail out there. The kiosk idea soon took form. With the immense success already taken place by Redbox, who has quickly expanded throughout the US, Blockbuster needed to find a partner, to help mitigate the risk. A partnership with NCR, a kiosk-based media distributor, was soon born, operating the kiosks under the brand name Blockbuster Express at retail giants throughout the States, such as Publix SuperMarkets — the largest employee-owned grocery chain in the US, and most recently in March, Sheetz–a gas station/convenience store chain, which has more than 350 locations in the US. The only downside to this is, not all states have Sheetz gas stations, or Publix grocery stores — leaving some customers with a zero-gain to the recent expansion. But, for their movie rental business, this is no doubt a step in the right direction.
Online Movie Renting
Blockbuster made a keen acquisition for their Blockbuster Online service when they acquired MovieLink–an online library of over 1,700 movies for online rental and 3,000 for online purchase–combining it with Blockbuster Online. MovieLink’s service, similar to Netflix’s online video service, has provided customers with the ability to not only get movies in the mail and at their stores, but conveniently download and stream them online as well. Although, we must stress that we did not like having to purchase or rent the movies online on top of our membership, it was still convenient and the prices were quite nominal for the convenience.
No Extra Charge For Blu-ray DVDs
Unlike Netflix, who charges an added fee to rent Blu-ray movies with their service, Blockbuster lets you upgrade movies to Blu-ray for free! This was certainly an enticing and exciting addon to the Blockbuster model, also one of what we feel, strong advantages of their DVD rental service.
Exclusive Offers Online
A little added bonus to joining is Blockbuster’s special offers to their subscribers. They will occasionally send out e-mails to you, like I got one yesterday to join e-Rewards Opinion Panel, where I can earn free rentals, and get a free $5 rental coupon on joining. Also, you’ll periodically get special coupons for discounts online or in-store.
Overall Consensus: We think it Blockbuster Online is a respectable alternative to Netflix, and does offer the convenience of returning in store, along with several other pluses, but depending on your needs might not be the best bang for your buck. However, they do offer a 2 week free trial, so one way to be certain is to give them a try, for free. ~ 3.75-5


















