Well, Blockbuster has apparently decided that it won’t be sitting on the sidelines when it comes to distributing digital media. According to Hollywood Reporter Blockbuster has begun developing a set-top box that will stream movies directly to your home, and an announcement will be made later this month regarding that. As expected Blockbuster didn’t want to comment on the rumor, but a spokeswoman said:
We’re talking to numerous companies and vendors about products, services, alliances and initiatives that can help us achieve our mission to transform Blockbuster into a company that provides access to media content across multiple channels — from our stores, by mail, through kiosks, through downloading, through portable content-enabled devices– so it’s not surprising that there are rumors out there.
The thing that really gets me is that this is going to be yet another box to add to our home theaters. Couldn’t they just partner with cable and satellite companies to help reduce the number of set-top boxes we have cluttering our homes? Having another box merely for streaming sounds like a waste of space.
What’s really going to be interesting is how much they’ll charge to get the box. I don’t think people would fork out too much money to get the actual unit, but maybe they’ll give it out for free if you sell your soul sign a rather lengthy service contract?
Hollywood Reporter [via Engadget]
[image via Flickr]
It’ll be interesting to see how Netflix responds, although I’m sure they have there own plan already in place.
Not only another box, but another antenna or dish to clutter your roof or yard and more cable to run. I remember when we lived in Southern California and did not have cable, we had 3 TV antennas on the roof, of course that was nothing compared to the huge antenna my father had in the backyard for his HAM radio. At one time we even had had antenna for ON TV ~ [en.wikipedia.org]
As for why a separate box, I would say it gives them more control and flexibility. Plus it keeps the costs down as they would likely have to pay some big bucks to partner with the local telephone, DISH or cable company.
I did read something about Netflix already working with LG to create a box, but at least Netflix also offers the computer streaming. Blockbuster might too by the time all of this is said and done.
I would assume that they would stream this over the Internet, and so there wouldn’t really be a satellite or cable that you would have to install. It would be merely plugging in the ethernet cable into the box.
Hmm, well that wouldn’t work for me since I don’t have ethernet here. Although I guess I could run an ethernet cable out the back of my modem 20 feet into my living room.
They may also make it wireless for those who have a router available, but to stream high-quality content using wireless normally isn’t the best idea.