US video rental giant Blockbuster just announced the Onkyo BD-SP808 Blu-ray player, set to ship to retailers in September, features a client for their online video service, Blockbuster On Demand.
Blockbuster On Demand is already supported on a handful of players from Phillips, Samsung & Toshiba, as well as a range of other devices including TiVo DVRs and the Archos 605 portable media player. There is also a client for Windows.
Unlike the Netflix Watch Instantly service, which offers unlimited viewing of mostly catalog titles and TV shows, Blockbuster On Demand rents and sells individual titles, including many new releases.
Blockbuster is favored with support from movie studios in the form of earlier access to new releases because this is sees as a tool to keep Netflix and Redbox from dominating the home video landscape. But Blockbuster’s failure to compete with either company has led them to bankruptcy.
Blockbuster’s plans for success in the on demand rental space may also be in trouble if rumors about Apple expanding their iTunes rental operation are true.
Their online offering has neither the brand name recognition of Netflix nor the base of TV-connected clients. From game consoles to Blu-ray players to HDTVs themselves, Netflix clients are everywhere.
Not to mention this year’s introduction of iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch clients. An Android app is also coming at some point in the future.
The widespread availability of the client, especially connected to TVs, has become arguably the biggest driver of recent growth for Netflix.
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Result for: blockbuster
Yesterday Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced plans to update the streaming video client for the PS3.
The update, which he expects to be available before the company’s third quarter earnings are released in October, will eliminate the requirement for a disc. Besides the obvious convenience for customers, this will allow them to continually update the interface as the Netflix Watch Instantly UI is improved.
Netflix continues to grow, largely on the strength of their ever expanding lineup of offerings for streaming to computers, set-top boxes, HDTVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles & other devices.
In the second quarter of 2010 year on year subscriber growth grew to an impressive 42%, which Hastings attributes primarily to the growing popularity of streaming. Although disc shipments continue to increase, they are being replaced by streaming more quickly than Netflix had forecast previously.
Netflix also plans to expand their streaming service into Canada later this year, although they won’t be giving much in the way of specifics until closer to the launch date.
Having already conquered traditional brick and mortar movie rental operations in the US, including the Blockbuster and the now defunct Movie Gallery, Netflix appears to be setting their sights on competing with the new subscription service from Hulu.
Hastings says he intends to watch Hulu Plus closely to find more areas to improve the Netflix streaming service. But ultimately he believes the bigger competitive threat are cable and satellite providers.
Result for: blockbuster
Although hardware saw a nice jump for the month, NPD has reported that June U.S. video game industry sales continued the long term downtrend, with overall sales falling 6 percent year-on-year (YoY), to $1.1 billion USD.
Hardware sales saw a nice five percent pop, to $401.7 million, and accessories saw a similar jump to $169.6 million.
Software dragged the entire industry down, falling 15 percent YoY to $531.3 million.
On the hardware side, the DS series led the way, at 510,700 units sold. The Xbox 360 saw a nice boost, moving to 451,700 units sold, beating out the Wii, which sold 422,500 units for the period.
Following behind were the Sony consoles, with the PS3 at 304,800 and the dying PSP handheld at 121,000.
On the software side, Red Dead Redemption continues to be a blockbuster, selling almost a million more units in June.
Full figures via GameSpot:
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Games: $1.1 billion (-6%)
Hardware: $401.7 million (+5%%)
Software: $531.3 million (-15%%)
Accessories: $169.6 million (+6%)
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