The Channel Wire

November 25, 2008

Blockbuster just upped the ante in its competition against Netflix: The media entertainment provider Tuesday rolled out a digital media player that offers instant access through television sets to on-demand content of recently released movies.

The service is essentially the evolution of Blockbuster's Movielink.com site, which offers roughly 10,000 on-demand movies for download to personal computers. Some 2,000 of those titles can be downloaded to televisions via Blockbuster OnDemand.

Two elements of Blockbuster's recent offering are different from Netflix's: the fees and the movies.

First, the 2Wire MediaPoint digital media player is available at no charge —but the customer must rent 25 Blockbuster OnDemand movies in advance, at a cost of $99 through the company's online service. After the initial 25 rentals, movie rentals start at $1.99 each. The players will begin shipping in time for the holiday season. Movies stay on the player for 30 days; once a movie is started, it must be viewed within 24 hours.

Rival Netflix has a free "Watch Instantly" feature, which streams movies to subscribers' TVs or personal computers, but users must subscribe to its unlimited monthly service. The company, which offers 12,000 titles, Tuesday announced members can have thousands of movies and TV episodes streamed to the TV via the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system when the new Xbox Experience premieres nationwide tomorrow.

Second, Blockbuster said the movies it is offering are more current that those of other subscription-based services. Many of the films will be available through the Blockbuster OnDemand service within weeks of leaving theaters, according to the company.

The MediaPoint digital media player is compact and can be integrated into home entertainment systems through composite cable, HDMI, component cable or Toslink.