Tag: movie rental

Redbox Gives Discounts For Answering Trivia Questions

Redbox, one of the top players in movie rental these days, is not shy about giving customers discounts. Its DVDs are already pretty low-priced (despite a minor price increase last year), but they’re always giving away free rentals for various reasons (liking their Facebook page, for example).

Now, Redbox is running a new campaign where customers can answer trivia questions for discounts on movies. Customers started receiving emails today that look like this:

Email marketing, by the way, appears to be a pretty powerful channel for Redbox, as the company’s kiosks require customers to enter their email addresses each time they rent a movie.

Notice that the trivia offering is powered by Scene It, a popular DVD-based movie trivia game.

January 22, 2012
YouTube Expands Movie Offerings to UK

YouTube has had movies available for a long time, but for quite a while, it was mostly just old stuff that wasn’t too much in demand, but then in May, they announced that they were doubling their movie offerings, and including new releases, which it would charge users for. Essentially, YouTube entered the movie rental business.

Later, they added the service in Canada.

Google announced today that over 1,000 full-length feature films are now available on YouTube in the UK as well.

“We’ve got some cracking films to keep everyone entertained through the upcoming winter months and beyond,” says YouTube Business Product Manager Matteo Vallone. “From blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs, to new releases such as Hanna, Fast Five, and Red Riding Hood, and even British classics like Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.”

“There’s always more to explore on YouTube,” Vallone adds. “Many movie pages also feature YouTube Movie Extras with free behind-the-scenes videos, cast interviews, parodies, clips and remixes from YouTube’s unique community of content creators. Over time we’ll also be adding additional videos and features to YouTube Movie Extras so that you can get even more into movies on YouTube.”

According to recent reports, Google is spending about $100 million to develop new original content for YouTube.

October 7, 2011
Amazon Instant Video Up to Over 100,000 Titles

Amazon announced that it now offers over 100,000 movies and TV shows through its Amazon Instant Video service. That includes new releases, and these titles can be either purchased or rented.

These titles start at $3.99 a piece, and can be viewed on Macs, PCs, or on TV via 300 different devices from Lg, Logitech, Panasonic, Roku, Samsung, Sony, Tivo, and Vizio.

“We are focused on offering our customers the very best selection and are always working to expand our already extensive list of great video content,” said Steve Oliver, director of video at Amazon. “The 100,000 titles on Amazon Instant Video range from new hit blockbusters to old favorites, with more than 15,000 of those titles available in HD, and popular TV shows available the day after they first air. On top of that, Amazon Prime members have the added benefit of unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of more than 9,000 Prime instant videos at no additional cost.”

Netflix, the current leader in movie rental, recently announced a new pricing structure that has been pretty controversial among members. Essentially, members who have had their streaming and DVD together plan have to pay 60% more to keep the same level of service. This goes into effect September 1 for existing members (that’s not too far off).

Amazon is often named as a major contender in the streaming space – the space that appears to be the future norm of video consumption. It will be interesting to see how the market share changes (if it does) once September gets here.

Amazon sites already attract one in five Internet users around the globe, according to a report out this week from comScore. They’ve also got tablet aspirations, which could factor heavily into their video streaming plans.

Amazon announced a 51% year-over-year growth in revenue for the second quarter in its latest earnings report. They also announced a deal with CBS to stream the networks’ TV shows.

August 18, 2011
mSpot Movie Rental Prices Get Cheaper as Competition Escalates

When Amazon announced its Cloud Drive and music player services 5GB of storage for free, mSpot knew it had to act. The company quickly announced that it would also be giving users 5GB of free space.

Now mSpot has lowered the pricing on its movies, to compete with Netflix, Blockbuster, Redbox, etc. as well. They are offering new releases for $3.00compared to the $3.99 industry standard.

“We’re squarely focused on providing value to our customers and our new move is to allow our customers to watch movies on every device they own. mSpot supports 40 to 50 different mobile devices,” CEO Daren Tsui tells WebProNews.

“We’re finding that many of our customers want to watch new release movies that are not yet available for streaming on Netflix,” he says. “We’ve always competed very well with our new release selection and we’re excited to offer our customers more competitive pricing.”

One area where Netflix and others have a leg up is the offering of television shows. When asked about mSpot’s plans for this, Tsui told us, “We have episodic tv, but feel like we want to get movies down first before offering television series. This is something we could offer in the future though.”

mSpot counts Disney, Paramount, WB, Universal, Sony and others among its partners.

“Getting DVDs in the mail is old school,” says Tsui. “To sum this up. we want to pass the value to our customers.”

Users who join mSpot’s Movies Club purchase pre-paid credits for a select number of rentals each month, based on their plan.

The company says, “New releases on mSpot Movies are often available the day DVDs go on sale. This means people can watch these movies 28 days before subscription services like Netflix offer the same DVD, and a full 1-7 years before they are available for streaming instantly on subscription services.”

Plans include: $4.99 a month for up to 4 movies, $7.99 a month for up to 8 movies, and $15.99 a month for up to 16 movies. Movie rentals can also be purchased a la carte from $1.99 – $3.99.

April 15, 2011
Good Week for Netflix Marred by Gaffes

You would think it would have been a good week for Netflix, given that the company began its first expansion into another country. Netflix launched its Canadian streaming-only service earlier this week.

It’s not been the smoothest of launches, however. First some of the extras the company had hired for a video gave interviews to the press, who thought they were actual customers. Netflix apologized for this. Steve Swasey, VP of corporate communications wrote:

I want to address an event held by Netflix in downtown Toronto yesterday as part of our launch of Netflix in Canada. The launch included the shooting of a corporate video with some hired extras, who, it turns out, were given improper direction to talk with the news media about their enthusiasm for the Netflix service. This was a mistake and was not intended to be part of our launch plan. Simply put: we blew it. We didn’t intend to mislead the media or the public, and we can understand why some have raised questions. We’re sorry that our misfire has given Canadians any reasons to doubt our authenticity or our sincerity.

Then, CEO Reed Hastings made some comments that didn’t sit too well with some people. He explains and apologizes here:

My Big American Foot is in my mouth. Yesterday, I made an awkward joke with a reporter in Toronto about Americans (like me) being self-absorbed relative to Netflix pricing in Canada. I was wrong to have made the joke, and I do not believe that one of the most philanthropically-minded nations in the world (America) is self-absorbed or full of self-absorbed people.

Reed does note that Netflix is planning a streaming-only plan in the US. "The pricing Netflix is offering in Canada, $7.99 per month, does not include any DVD-by-mail option, and that is why it is cheaper than our $8.99 USA plan which has both DVD-by-mail and streaming in one plan," says Hastings. "We are looking at adding a streaming-only option for the USA over the coming months. My apologies to anyone offended by my self-absorbed comment."

The company also announced a new deal with NBC Universal, which should help bolster its streaming catalog.

September 24, 2010
Netflix Launches in Canada Without DVDs, Smaller Streaming Catalog

In July, Netflix said it would expand into Canada this fall, and the company made good on that promise as it made the announcement today. This marks the first international expansion of the company.

Canadians might not be too excited, however, as the launch does not include Netflix’s DVD rental service, but only its online streaming service. In the U.S., customers pay for the DVD service and get the online streaming service for free as an added bonus. Canadians get to pay $7.99 (Canadian) for the streaming service only.

Update: WebProNews asked Netflix VP, Corporate Communications Steve Swasey if the company has plans to offer DVD service in Canada in the future. He simply replied, "Pure streaming in Canada." He also notes that the Canadian catalog features different titles and is based on different licenses.

"Netflix members in Canada can instantly watch movies and popular shows – such as ‘Superbad,’ ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and ‘Mad Men’ – right on their TVs via Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PS3 game console, and coming later this fall, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, as well as models from Sharp, VIZIO, Haier and Best Buy’s Insignia brand. Plus, they can instantly watch via Apple’s iPhone or iPad and on PCs and Macs," says Netflix’s Jessie Becker.

There is no question that Netflix has made a lot of moves and will continue to do so to bolster its streaming catalog. However, as a standalone service (without the DVDs), it might be harder to find anywhere close to the substantial customer base it has acquired over the years in the U.S.

The streaming catalog is better, but it’s still not great. However, in the U.S. we are used to having Netflix with DVDs. As Canada has not had this from the company at all, perhaps they won’t miss it as much. Update: It’s worth noting that the Canadian catalog is different than the U.S. catalog. Update 2: Swasey says the catalog in Canada is "slightly smaller".

Would you pay for Netflix’s online streaming service only? Let us know.

September 22, 2010
Redbox May Soon Look for its Slice of Netflix’s Online Pie

Netflix appears to be facing increasing competition from all sides. In addition to long-time rival BlockBuster, retailer-based rental services and Hulu’s recently launched Hulu Plus paid service, Coinstar’s Redbox is reportedly looking to launch an online strategy.

Redbox is of course known for its kiosks featuring $1 DVD rentals. They can be found at fast food restaurants, gas stations and grocery stores all over the country. The problem is that the industry is clearly going digital, and that is not an area where Redbox has much to offer. Yet.

Redbox President Mitch Lowe told Bloomberg the company may use a web service to expand its library. "The way we look at it is, How can it help us deliver to our customers things we can’t do in our kiosks?" Bloomberg quotes Lowe as saying. "What role might it play in expanding our selection?"

At least Redbox has a web site that (some) customers are used to visiting. The site currently lets you check movie availability at near-by kiosks. Customers would no doubt be happy to watch the movies directly from the site. If they’re still a dollar a piece, and on demand, Redbox might have something.

While the online movie/TV content industry may be heating up in terms of competition. Netflix seems to have a pretty comfortable lead. This was abundantly clear, especially at the announcement of Hulu Plus.

Netflix announced today that it is launching in Canada this fall, where it will offer streaming movies and TV episodes, as it does in the U.S. This will be the first country outside of the U.S. for Netflix.

July 19, 2010
YouTube Movie Rental Experiment Fails (So Far)

On Friday, YouTube started a movie rental experiment involving five motion pictures from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance Film Festivals. Now, although the trial run is several days away from being over, it’s starting to look like the word "failure" will have to be applied.

Ryan Lawler took a look at how many views each of the Sundance videos had chalked up as of last night. The totals were sad, with Bass Ackwards, Homewrecker, The Cove, Children of Invention, and One Too Many Mornings receiving 308, 308, 303, 301, and 250 views, respectively.

This indicates an almost extreme disinterest on the part of YouTube users; lots of random clips that haven’t been mentioned on the YouTube Blog and in various places all over the Web attract more viewers.

There could be a few valid excuses for these numbers, however. First is the simple idea of the view counters getting stuck, and of the five videos, YouTube’s only indicating that one has received additional views since Lawler performed his analysis, so this is a real possibility.

The second issue relates to YouTube’s country restrictions. In response to the YouTube Blog post announcing the movie rentals, several commenters have complained about geographic blocks, so there may be a sizable international audience that’s been shut out.

Finally, it’s possible that the movies are just bad (at least by YouTube users’ standards). Ratings have been disabled for two of the films, and the other three are averaging roughly two out of five stars.

This last explanation wouldn’t salvage the current experiment, of course, but it might be that the general concept of renting movies through YouTube hasn’t quite run into a brick wall.

UPDATE: A YouTube representative was good enough to reach out to WPN and offer the site’s perspective on the rental experiment. He stated, "[T]hese are independent films, not Hollywood blockbusters and both you and Ryan seem to be judging them on Hollywood standards. The vast majority of independent films created every year don’t find an audience. Our goal with rolling out the Rentals offering at Sundance was to give these filmmakers to find that audience, regardless of size."

The representative then supplied a few interesting statistics. He wrote, "Out of the of the roughly 9000 films that were submitted to Sundance in 2009, about 53 of them found some form of distribution. . . . Attendance for films like these at Sundance averages around 500 people. With YouTube they’ve increased that exposure by about 60%. I’d say that’s a stat we can all be proud of."

Related Articles:

> Hulu (Again) Considers Monthly Fee

> Will YouTube Be The Place To Rent Movies?

> Barclays Analyst Predicts YouTube Profitability

January 26, 2010
Will YouTube Be the Place to Rent Movies?

YouTube has made a couple of big announcements. First of all, they are going to start renting movies. They are kicking off this initiative by partnering with the Sundance Film Festival, making five films from 2010 and 2009 available for rent for U.S. users. This starts Friday and will run through Sunday January 31.

In addition to those five films, another small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries (including health and education) will be made available in the coming weeks. "We’re also excited to put out the call for more independent filmmakers to join the rental program as part of our ‘Filmmakers Wanted’ campaign at the festival," says the YouTube team.

Trailer for one of the five Sundance films

"These are early days and in the coming weeks we’ll also invite a small group of partners across other industries, in addition to independent film, to participate in this new option," the team adds. "Anything that brings more content to the YouTube community is a good thing. And making content available for rent will give our partners unprecedented control over the distribution of their work — they can decide the price of their videos and the rental duration; they can decide when and where their content is available; and they can keep 100% of their rights."

This could lead to something huge for the movie rental industry. If major movie studios get on board with this…just imagine. YouTube is far and away the biggest video site on the web. What if you could just rent all of your movies from there? That could give even Netflix a run for its money, especially as Internet-ready televisions become more mainstream. Going that far is only speculative of course, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.

To rent the movies YouTube will be offering, users can use Google Checkout to pay (what a great way for Google to drive more people to that too).

YouTube also announced that it is introducing an experimental version of an HTML5-supported video player. "Most notably for YouTube users, HTML5 includes support for video and audio playback," says YouTube engineer Kevin Carle. "This means that users with an HTML5 compatible browser, and support for the proper audio and video codecs can watch a video without needing to download a browser plugin."

"Our support for HTML5 is an early experiment, and there are some limitations," he adds. "HTML5 on YouTube doesn’t support videos with ads, captions, or annotations and it requires a browser that supports both the video tag and h.264 encoded video (currently that means Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer). We will be expanding the capabilities of the player in the future, so get ready for new and improved versions in the months to come."

The HTML5 experiment can be found here. If you’re interested, you can join the experiment, which will enable HTML5 video for your browser, if you use one of the ones mentioned.

Related Articles:

> Barclays Analyst Predicts YouTube Profitability

> YouTube To Experiment With Live Sports Coverage

> Google Gets Patent For YouTube Gaming

January 21, 2010