Sunday, January 28, 2007

Blockbuster back in the game!

Blockbuster, which had been turning into an also ran, has a compelling new offering: Blockbuster Total Access.

Like Netflix, you can order and receive movies by mail at Blockbuster. The twist is you can return your mailer to the store and get a free movie. Effectively, this doubles the amount of movies you receive. In addition, the store immediately logs in your movie as returned, signalling the online service to send your next movie. If that weren't enough, each month you also get a coupon for a free movie or game.

Netflix has an incredible selection but new, popular movies are often waitlisted. With Blockbuster, those movies are often available in the store. So you can you use a two-fold strategy with Blockbuster. Use the online service for more obscure titles and the free, in-store movies to get the latest blockbusters.

Netflix is countering with a new service that will allow you to stream movies to your computer. That's innovative, but who wants to watch a movie on their computer?

Jimbo