BLOCKBUSTER Has Spat Out The Proverbial Dummy!
This has been given very little coverage and, had it not been for a random conversation last night with my old boss at the Blockbuster Store I used to work at many many moons ago, then I would not have been aware of it. Are you guys? Has this incident been reported and just passed me by? For those not in the know, let me explain:
Sky, over here in the UK, have struck a deal with certain distributors to have ’same day service’ for their Box Office (i.e. Pay Per View) service so that certain movies are given premiere screenings on Sky on the same day that they are released on DVD here in the UK. The first movie to receive such treatment was The Cottage (my review of which can be found here) which was released last month.
Blockbuster have called “foul play” on this deal and claimed it was a “deliberate act of sabotage” on the behalf of Sky and those distributors working in partnership with them. Their response, initially, was to refuse to stock that given title, i.e. The Cottage, as either a rental or for retail. They have since gone even further: They now refuse to stock ANY titles released by distributors who have cut such a deal with Sky (whether such films are shown ’same day’ on Sky Box Office or not, it would appear!) and they are refusing to accept any titles by those distributors as part of their ‘trade-in’ scheme. The next title, allegedly set to suffer, is Fool’s Gold (which may not be a bad thing - as that film has been getting awful reviews, but is being sent to me for review this week so stay tuned!).
Bit petulant don’t you think? Make ‘the jump’ with me and let me put my own personal opinion forward on this?
There seems to be a beligerant, stale and unmodern attitude being expressed by Blockbuster here. Any business has to move with the times, and ’the times’ do indeed seem to show that the way forward is in people downloading movies, using online rental services or using home comfort facilities such as pay per view channels. Blockbuster’s response should have been one bordering on a “natural business reaction” - i.e. look at what places like Sky Box Office are charging and undercut them. Blockbuster, after all, have hawked up their prices considerably in the last few years. Instead they’re acting in the manner of a spoilt six year old school kid who doesn’t like that his playground football team are losing in a game using his ball, so he picks it up and walks home in an attempt to sabotage the game!
Who loses out in the end? Well, it’s you ’Joe Public’ isn’t it? There are still some people out there who don’t have the internet (therefore negating online renting) and aren’t able to have a digital satelite or cable service like Sky or Virgin, for a multitude of reasons, but who are movie fans through and through. Their only way of seeing movies is to rent or to buy and with Blockbuster leading the market on street rental and now refusing to stock some titles, they’re punishing only the paying members of the public.
And it’s only going to get worse — for Blockbuster! Because if it is one hundred percent true that they now refuse to stock ANY titles released by distributors who have cut such a deal with Sky, and that Fool’s Gold is next in line for this “embargo” then Blockbuster have essentially fucked themselves, pardon my french (I normally save such uncouthness for my reviews and the talkbacks!). Why? Because Fool’s Gold is distributed by Warner Brothers. And cutting Warner Brothers off completely, which is meant to be Blockbuster’s new policy, will deny them the likes of future Harry Potter movies and that little Watchmen movie.
Blockbuster will back down. I worked with the company back when online renting first came to fruitation and their initial response was damnright embarrassing; they made public statements that there was “no future”, “an open gateway to theft” and a “deliberate act of sabotage” going-on (that quote again!). Staff were actively encouraged to besmerch online renting to customers and we were coached, this is no lie, in anecdotes to regale customers with about “friends of ours” who had ”experienced bad customer service” from such encounters with online renting. Then what happened? Blockbuster set up its own online rental outlet and had us start promoting it to the very customers we’d been slating it to mere months earlier.
This will only hit Blockbuster. I can imagine once they start losing more and more content, people are going to get pissed off and start working out what they pay per month on rentals, realise that they could actually save money by getting a satelite or cable subscription and just move away from using Blockbuster’s services. I know at least two families within my stratosphere of friends who are going down that route because they don’t want to have to buy a DVD every time they just want to watch a film and they don’t have Sky either.
What’s your thoughts on this then? Every year there seems to be something that puts Blockbuster in the headlines for doing something, getting pissed off about something etc. etc. Who do you think is in the wrong overall on this? Am I the only one who still occasionally uses their services from time to time? Am I the only one who doesn’t hold an online rental account with some company?
And, really, how in-touch with modern times are this company when they have 30 copies of Meet The Spartans and zero copies of this masterpiece?
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7 Responses to “BLOCKBUSTER Has Spat Out The Proverbial Dummy!”
*sigh*
Why the **** do I bother?
I don’t have an online account because I never rent. Either I buy it or find a stream of it online. That’s it.
To be absolutely honest I’m just happy you’re still committed to making sure my work doesn’t go uncommented on by your goodself! I appreciate it!
Can you e-mail me some addresses Kris for such ’streaming’ sites that you use?
You all disappoint me.
What the **** is new there?
I work at Blockbuster, and I honestly hope the company gets shit on. Just straight up spraying it all over the company’s face. The company is circling the toilet anyways, and they keep throwing out stupid shit for us to sell to try and get back on their feet, but it isn’t working. Blockbuster is gonna be gone within the next 5-10 years, and it’s gonna take that long because they are in denial, and they’re going to stretch it out for as long as they can.
Happy in your job then Nionix?
Ha Ha! Yeah, I do thoroughly agree with your regarding them as a company! Thank god my days of pushing “bundles” on customers in their stores is long over!
For the purposes of full disclosure, I did get the contact details for the Area Manager local to me and left requests for him to comment on this article ahead of it being published. He never got back to me.
I also discovered this morning that FOOL’S GOLD is being stocked in Blockbuster stores as of its release today despite it being one such title shown ’same day’ on Sky Box Office.
I asked the guy at my local store and he said “I think they’ve realised they cannot get rid of Warner Brothers titles coz they’d lose too many movies. I do know that we did not plan on stocking Fool’s Gold but it arrived friday with a note that we are now to be renting it as normal. As far as I’m aware our refusal to stock any titles by Pathe, most notably The Cottage, still stands!”
Nionix, you are 100% right in what you say, I think Blockbuster is the retail/rental equivilent of Bruce Willis in THE SIXTH SENSE - they’re dead, they just don’t know it!
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