Posted
1/02/2005 02:18:00 PM
by Douglas
Turns out, I'm not the
only one that thinks Blockbuster
sucks.This is why entertainment giant Viacom divested itself of Blockbuster in October. Viacom's brass said they believed Blockbuster would be better off on its own. What they meant was that Viacom would be better off without Blockbuster.
Broadband is going to kill off the DVD eventually, too, so there's not much reason to start mourning the loss of Blockbuster, especially since they're responsible for shutting down every local video store in the world.
Just before Christmas, Blockbuster said it would lower its monthly fee from $17.49 to $14.99 for its Netflix-like service. That announcement came shortly after Blockbuster said it would cut late fees for in-store rentals. Blockbuster said it expects to lose income of between $250 million and $300 million for 2005 as a result of eliminating late fees.
Imagine that. Taking a quarter-billion dollars a year from customers who are too busy, too lazy or too forgetful to return their videos. This is a business model that deserves to die.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds this ridiculously absurd. But does this mean I'm
not going to get two weeks of free DVDs from them? Of course not.