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.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More