Blockbuster Inc. plans to offer movies that can be watched on Motorola Inc. cell phones. It marks the struggling rental company’s first step into mobile video and is its latest effort at chasing down the customers who have abandoned its traditional video stores.
Blockbuster offered few details Tuesday on the plan, which expands on the company’s OnDemand movie downloading service offered through set-top boxes for TVs.
Kevin Lewis, Blockbuster’s senior vice president for digital entertainment, said the company is still working on specifics, including when the service will be available and how much it will cost.
Consumers will be able to pay for separate titles. Television series may be available along with new releases, Lewis said.
Customers will likely be offered the ability to download the videos to their phones – so movies won’t necessarily be cut off without cell phone service.
Blockbuster has been scrambling to find new revenue sources as traffic at movie rental stores wanes and customers move to online video and order-by-mail services like Netflix.
The company’s alliance with Samsung Electronics America Inc., announced last month, will allow customers to rent movies with their remote control on Samsung’s latest high-definition TVs. Earlier this year, Blockbuster introduced a similar on-demand service offered through TiVo Inc.’s digital video recorders.
On another flank, Blockbuster is promising 10,000 DVD rental kiosks to compete with Coinstar Inc. subsidiary Redbox, which is luring frugal customers with its $1-per-night DVD rentals.
“We have to be in all the places that people care about seeing movies,” Lewis said.
Blockbuster joins a growing field of video services on cell phones.
Mobile customers can get clips on the mobile version of Google Inc.’s YouTube and movie rentals from Apple Inc.’s iTunes store on the iPhone. Verizon Wireless also offers V Cast, which shows sports, news and comedy clips on phones, starting at $15 per month.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More