Blockbuster, 1 billion in debt, filing for bankruptcy

[BoomerD]

Blockbuster was at the bottom of the barrel of choices for me. I preferred Hollywood Video...but they folded a while back...Netflix was decent...at first, then they started throttling my rentals...and after a few months of that, I dumped them. I tried Blockbuster's rent-by-mail service, but their selection sucked.

Nowadays, if it ain't at the RedBox...I don't rent it at all.

 

[Miramonti]

Blockbuster was at the bottom of the barrel of choices for me. I preferred Hollywood Video...but they folded a while back...Netflix was decent...at first, then they started throttling my rentals...and after a few months of that, I dumped them. I tried Blockbuster's rent-by-mail service, but their selection sucked.

Nowadays, if it ain't at the RedBox...I don't rent it at all.

Redbox has lost a lot of it's luster already imo. It's vulnerable to the crappy hollywood offerings, which doesn't help when thier selection is small and mostly recent stuff, and at $1.50 a night here, I rarely have interest in even checking them out beyond the quick walk-bye glances at the pictured releases.

 

[theflyingpig]

It's about time. It was pathetic watching them struggle to stay relevant for all these years. I can't wait until the RIAA finally lays down and dies too.

 

[Koing]

Until I can get comparable streaming stuff with HD sound I am not in on this streaming stuff...but who cares for that? Probably not that much.

BR has it's markets.

Koing

 

[dfuze]

I'm surprised it took them this long to file for it.

More surprised that last couple of years they were able to get more money to go further into debt since they didn't seem to have a winning plan

 

[Jeeebus]

It was a good run... but like all good runs, it came to an end.

A pre-planned Chapter 11 filing is hardly evidence of a final good-bye to the company. Yes, there's a chance that BB does not emerge from bankruptcy, but if it's pre-planned, they likely already have debtor-in-possession financing lined up and are planning to emerge relatively shortly. The only real change is that equity is getting wiped out and the senior noteholders are going to walk away with a big chunk of the company (could be upward of 95&#37.

This type of stuff is all I did for the last few years.

 

[Double Trouble]

Blockbuster will be used as a business case in business schools for decades. It's a classic example of a business dominating a part of an industry, getting complacent and not being proactive enough or having the vision to understand how the industry would change at some point. Back when they dominated, they had the resources to expand into new up-and-coming areas (like rent by mail, streaming, online sales etc), but decided they want to stick with their core business. It's like the buggy-whip makers deciding to stay in that business even with the advent of the car.

BB had some good aspects in it's day, but ultimately it shows how drastically you can fail if you fail to grasp the fundamental shifts in your industry (RIAA, does that sound familiar?).

 

[Crow550]

Blockbuster is doing some kind of merge with Comcast to offer dvds by mail....

 

[PliotronX]

Aw man, I know the dudes working at a local BB and it has an okay selection. As for streaming, I might mess with it if Verizon hurried up and offered FIOS here.

 

[Gibson486]

As much as i do not like Blockbuster, nothing beats renting B&M.

Yeah, Netflix is great, but

1. They throttle you
2. You kind of have know what you want to watch in advance
3. when you are done, you have to wait 3-5 days for the next one.

Yes, there is streaming, but there is really nothing good to stream.

RedBox just plain stinks. I like that they let you reserve a DVD online, but everyone in my area is jumping on the reserve online. also, they have yet to have Bluray and their selection blows.

 

[dfuze]

I don't know about other BB stores, but my local one used to have aisles all over the place for movies, now about 20% is games (not bad in it's own right though). But almost the rest of the interior which used to be older movies are now gone and replaced with either empty space or bins of movies for sale. They really needed more store space to do all they wanted to do it seems like. Trying to mash DVD, BD, games and used stuff all into one small space. That's where a central warehouse comes in handy and netflix used that advantage better

 

[Ronstang]

Blockbuster will be used as a business case in business schools for decades. It's a classic example of a business dominating a part of an industry, getting complacent and not being proactive enough or having the vision to understand how the industry would change at some point. Back when they dominated, they had the resources to expand into new up-and-coming areas (like rent by mail, streaming, online sales etc), but decided they want to stick with their core business. It's like the buggy-whip makers deciding to stay in that business even with the advent of the car.

BB had some good aspects in it's day, but ultimately it shows how drastically you can fail if you fail to grasp the fundamental shifts in your industry (RIAA, does that sound familiar?).

So what you are saying is BB is suffering from IBMitis?

 

[Wyndru]

I rented gladiator for a school thing, and was too busy to return it for like 2 weeks. They sent me a collections notice. Redbox would have just charged me I think. This is why no one likes blockbuster.

Blockbuster express > redbox though.

I think that is fairly recent (the last few months) because there are a ton of complaints online about this. When they introduced their no late fee policy it was great, but I guess it can't last forever. They used to give me a phone call after 2 weeks to remind that I had up until 30 days before a charge would be put on my card for the amount of the video, then I still had another 30 days to return it and have that money refunded.

Does red box have bluray? I've been looking for an alternative for Blockbuster but I don't want netflix, since I don't watch enough movies to make it worth a monthly subscription fee.

 

[oddyager]

So what you are saying is BB is suffering from IBMitis?

Or American-car-industry-itis.

 

[bruceb]

Good riddance. Never did like them. At one time I owned shares in Netflix .. sold them few years back, decent profit. Should of kept them, as they would now be worth about triple my sales price. Now I own some share in Coinstar (CSTR) .. that is the company with the "red box dvd rental kiosks" you see in stores like A&P

 

[bignateyk]

I dont see DVD by mail lasting long either. Services like Netflix are just a stop gap between renting from a local store and full on HD streaming.

At least Netflix realizes this and is setting themselves up for more and more streaming.

Eventually we should see full service streaming services, one stop shop for movies, TV shows (new and old), News, and even live sporting events. I imagine it would have datacenters around the world to optimize bandwidth, and may even use P2P style downloading. Once this happens we can say goodbye to Cable/Satelite and just use a high badwidth internet connection for everything.

My god. It'll be a glorious day when the world can finally rid itself of cable/satellite companies.

 

[Jeffg010]

If BB would have sold porn in the early days they would be ahead 1B. That is the main reason I never went there. The local store had my favorite porn Ed Powers.

 

[allisolm]

Does red box have bluray?

They do but not everywhere. You can check at the redbox site to see if Blu-ray titles are available near you. http://www.redbox.com/content.mvc/bluray. Blu-ray titles are $1.50.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Yep, totally saw this coming. Their biggest downfall was not getting in to the rental-by-mail and online streaming markets years ago. They did eventually start offering them, but it was too little too late IMO.

this. To slow to shut down their retail stores bled them dry.

 

[DT4K]

Did any of you actually read the article?
They aren't going out of business.
At least not anytime soon.

 

[0roo0roo]

I'm surprised it took them this long to file for it.

More surprised that last couple of years they were able to get more money to go further into debt since they didn't seem to have a winning plan

lol yea, some chump out there loaned them that cash to burn. the ones i drive past are just sad looking stores....atleast hollywood had newer interiors and styling..bb is like something from the early 90s. frozen in time like circuit city.

 

[Eli]

I cut up my Blockbuster card in '96 due to horrible customer support. Haven't set foot in one since.

 

[PricklyPete]

Surprised it took this long. Seems like they made a bunch of bad decisions (especially with the conversion to DVD) and sat stagnant in their success too long. Hate to see a company fail...but not surprised this is happening. I can't believe people have lent them 1 billion....they've been a failing company for a long time.

 

[Aharami]

I know it's cool to hate on BB here, but I love BB. Nothing beats their total access plan. For $20 a month, I get 3 movies out a time and get to exchange them for in-store rentals. It's very convenient going out on a whim on a Friday night with the wifey and picking out a movie to watch together and not having to pay anything extra. Also love that they have a store 2 mins away from my house. I will miss them if they do go out od business or close up that store near me.

 

[imagoon]

As much as i do not like Blockbuster, nothing beats renting B&M.

Yeah, Netflix is great, but

1. They throttle you
2. You kind of have know what you want to watch in advance
3. when you are done, you have to wait 3-5 days for the next one.

Yes, there is streaming, but there is really nothing good to stream.

RedBox just plain stinks. I like that they let you reserve a DVD online, but everyone in my area is jumping on the reserve online. also, they have yet to have Bluray and their selection blows.

Strange. Here: Turn around is literally 2 days. I was cycling through them (watching TV shows on DVD) 5-7 disks a week for 3 months (you would think they could get more than 2 45 minutes episodes to a disc). They never missed a beat. I get the disc, watch it, send it in the morning, would get the received / sent email that night, discs would be in the mail the next day. It has been that way for more than 3 years.

I literally never ran our of discs to watch unless I forgot to send them back.