BlockBuster to go Bust

[steve_a]

Hi Everybody,

I was reading the other week that the BlockBuster video lending people are to file for bankruptcy.

If that is the case, then does that mean that one of the most economical ways for entertainment - renting a video to watch in your own home - is becoming too expensive, or does it mean that people are so cheap (a practice in the US which is greatly frowned upon) that they have to download almost always illegal videos from the internet?

"Blockbuster closed nearly 1,000 stores in the last year alone, a reflection of consumers’ rapidly declining interest in renting DVDs from retail locations now that they can rent them from ubiquitous kiosks in grocery stores, in the mail, or via the Internet."

One could argue that downlaoding an album that in the shops could cost $30 or $40 could be justifiable, is the economy so screwed that the average Joe can't afford $5 for a video that they would see probably only once anyway?

If cheap home entertainment is getting to expensive for the average US household, then the American saying should be changed to, "God help America".

http://www.observer.com/2010/daily-transom/blockbuster-goes-bust

Best regards,

Steve

[The One]

steve_a amazing

[Kulapops]

well... with the likes of play.com selling DVDs for a fiver....and lovelfilm renting via monthly subscription via download and the post...with no penalties for late returns... maybe Blockbuster is a thing of the past

What I don't understand is how so many 'poor' people can afford Sky ?! So no, I don't believe the bs about people ripping off copies cos they're too expensive to buy. Sky is too expensive to buy too ;)

People also say they can't afford to eat organic cause it's too expensive too.

Yeah. Right.

:)

[TigaHawk]

Ok, me being a complete nerd that needs more sunlight... have quite an opinion on this one ;)



Its niether the fact that its too expensive or people are bein lazy/cheap.


It's that the times are changing, how people expect to recieve the product is changing, but the people who distribute the product refuze to move on with the times and at least in part try to acomodate for the way they know consumers want to recieve their product.


This is in part due to two things. The big company's need for controll/power, and their fear of being exploited further by pirates.

To elaborate on that above in specific for the Video, MP3 and Comptuer Game inudstry specificly:

User's want to be able to find a single song, movie, game, whatever in a relatively quick ammount of time, and download/install/use it, on multiple devices with ease


The big companie's wont do this. Look at the MP3 industry, it's split up across so many platforms depending on which producer the artist went with. Sony's music store will have some, Apple's will have another, Country specific (www.bigpondmusic.com.au) will have an even smaller list of music to choose from.

Another inconvenience is that along with the trouble of finding the song you want, you then have to deal with misc copy protection, so if you want to have you're music on multiple devices it's a pain.

For games, its similar. Still split up by the various competing companies, some offer the ability for you to buy/download games online, one in particular (Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/)), is brilliant at it, they've picked up the ball and moved along with the times and by god its showing. But there are still many other competing companies that refuze to go along or setup their own system that is a pain/restrictive to the user.


And for the Movie industry? I am unsure how redily avaliable Movie's are on the internet for you, but in Australia we're plagued by download limits. I believe 1 isp bigpond has a movie rental service which they dont charge you're downloads for, but it's pricey and you only keep the movie for X days before it locks down and becomes unplayable as you're only "renting" the movie.



So, the Games industry has 1 lot which is leading an example and alot which are hopeless...

The music industry is "sorta" on the right path, but they're being very very stubborn about adapting. All it would take to make the music industry thriving once more is for them to remove the crippling copy protection and team up to allow for quick, easy and cheap downloads. Why remove the copy protection completley? there will allways be pirates, with copy protection they allways only hinder the legit customer, as pirates remove all the hindering stuff before releasing it for others to download.

Same goes for the Movie industry. If blockbuster went online, or were allowed to sell dvd's (why rent... we only ever watch them once/twice anyway, jeez) for a decent price, again without the copy protection... in high quality.... their buisness would be booming.



But for now, one pirate is definately laughing. As this pirate see's the irony of how the big company's quest for power and controll is crippling them.

[steve_a]

Hi Tigahawk,

http://www.blockbuster.com/ ;)

Steve

[Luke]

Boils down to scarcity for me.
Material things cannot be just copied (not yet).
Information can be copied at will, at no cost, well with lil electricity bill that we pay anyway. There is no scarcity at all, unless artificially induced. (copyrights, patent laws, "Intellectual Propoerty" etc. serve that purpose: create scarcity where there was none, for few to profit)
When some good is not scarce, price will approach zero.
All visual entertainment is not scarce from the moment they are produced. And they will be produced as long as cost will be lower than returns. Plus technology goes cheaper.
Problem is that distribution sector does not acknowledge that. they are stuck in their ways and want "scarce days" back. And they have reserves to buy laws they need in order to prop their failed interests. But it'll not last.
Thing is, charging for information same amount as for physical good is plain insanity and open market punishes it accordingly.

(so basically I agree with TigaHawk :) )

[TigaHawk]

Steve_A :)


Ahh i see.

But what happens when you add an .au to that addresss?


what? No more download/rent movies over the internet? only option to go in and physically get it? :rolleyes: Just pointing out that some countries just dont have the infastructure to support, or moreso the ISP's refuze to stop using bandwidth limits as a means of profits.... so its not viable for the companies to even think of renting it via the net.


But yeah, full price for something you rent over the internet? no wonder they're going bust :evil:

[steve_a]

Hi TigaHawk,

I'm sure that English speaking countries use .com and not only the .au of Australia. This very forum is a .net. I could understand if downloads from .coms were blocked by the Aussie government, but I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened (yet!).

As for full priced items, you hit the nail right on the head. "Full" price is the price that a licensed vendor would charge. The 'fly by nights' charge less bacause many do not pay taxes, or royalty fees. I know this because I'm from the intellectual property area (I deal with music). I really find it amazing why people think that intellectual rights don't or shouldn't exist, they just get something because it saves them a buck - as they would say in the US - cheapskate.

And that was the point of my posting the thread.

A law abiding company becomes so heavily in debt because of cheapskates who think it smart to save themselves a quick buck, not thinking that in the future the quality of intellectual property, be it film, music, books etc. will go down as nobody will want to invest in them any more. Just look at musical production lately...

But, as the youth of today would say, "Whatever...."

Best regards,

Steve

[Moemers]

I don't think you can generalize musical production as a whole being poor.

I also don't see how Netflix jeopardizes quality of intellectual property.

If I can rent 2 movies for 10 dollars for one night or pay 10 dollars to stream unlimited movies during one month, I'm going to.

[Arpheus]

Blockbuster been in trouble for years just dragging along the reason why?Its simple netflix killed them,you cant beat netflix tho thats the bottom line.10 bucks to watch as many streams as you want plus one movie at a time is a great deal in my opinion.

[Humble Janitor]

I wouldn't go as far as to call Americans cheap, steve_a.

It costs more to rent a dvd or a game than it did 5, 10 years ago. If not for piracy and abuse of rented media, it would not cost so much.

[Luke]

(...) If not for piracy and abuse of rented media, it would not cost so much.

Piracy have NO connection to cost of rental, simply because people who "pirate" have no intention of paying in first place, co counting them as part of "consumer base" is simply faulty economic thinking. Sadly it's prevalent type of thinking in IP-crazed circles, spewing propaganda about how they loose money - but truth is they would never earn this money in the first place, piracy or not. Simple as that.

Movies or games or albums are still profitable and made, and there is no danger to them, on contrary- budgets do rise, which means the profits are expected to get bigger - another sign that "pirates R killin us" talk is pure BS.

For me act of buying is placing my energy in support of someones work. This is not trivial. It's obvious that if I enjoy someone's work qualities I pledge my energy to support him, and spread publicity too. If you produce throwaway "works" then do not expect people pledge their energy to it, dammit.

Again, this is how market works. People exchange value for something of equal or greater perceived value. If people "go pirate" this means price is too high. Simple as that: a common application of Laffer Curve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve). A sign some markets are not yet as distorted as law or financial one.

If your businesses economic model is faulty, sure its easier to b***h about "cheapskates" than to look at yourself and see faults in seeing things for what they are. That is how totalitarisms rise: people like to blame others for their mistakes: burgerois, "capitalists", Jews, Muslims, PTB's, take your pick. All you need is clever conman to guide deluded masses.

[frank samuel]

Thinking about dollars and cents , I used to be a a faithful Blockbuster customer. Does anyone remember the dreaded word, LATE FEES, or even worse damaged or lost DVD ? It cost an average of 4 to 5 dollars plus tax to rent one single DVD for 3 days, if your late normally you can paid 3 additional dollars plus tax per DVD. If you lost the DVD you can paid up to 40 dollars plus tax for the DVD.

Now here comes the miracle of internet where you can watch any movie, event, TV series, anything absolutely FREE, no late fees, no paying for anything. What would you do ? Give thousands of dollars a year to your local blockbuster DVD rental shop and some additional money in taxes to you government.
ON second thought, thanks but no thanks.

http://www.movie2k.com/

http://movie-mirror.com/

http://cineinternet.tk/

http://www.freefullmovies.net/most.popular.html

Anyway you get the idea.:popcorn:

[TigaHawk]

Steva_A the point i was trying to make (and obviously i failed miserably) Is that the way different countries, hell sometimes even different states are set up.

Australia doesnt have the infastructure nor the companies willing to allow for us to have unlimited bandwidth. Bandwidth is expensive as all hell in Australia, its the main reason why alot of online games DONT get a dedicated server, or a server in australia. Because the companies whom make the games, and setup the servers contact the Aussie guys to find the best place to host, and the cheapest place is still 5x the ammount per month + extra charges if they exceed their bandwidth.

Noone, will touch our hosting (apart from the Telco's who own the lines and host their own servers of corse, but their crap and restricted to their own customers only)

Because of this situation, Even if the companies mad a move and started offering high quality movies for download, no copy protection for $5 each - It'd never be a hit in australia because people would be capped/run over in bandwidth from downloading them unless they specificly side with an ISP who is premoting a deal.


My point is, even if they pull their finger out and change their ways, theres many many many other people who are just as greedy and heartless who will cause issues/hinderance to you trying to get the product (in this example, isp's cashing in on their bandwidth scheme when they know you'll be downloading 5gig legit movies and blowing your d/l cap, soon as you do that, they charge 14c per MEGABYTE. so yeah, they make a fair bit off it.

And i am sure that Australia is not the only country where other companies and their infastructure/setup hinder people too - it's allways going to be faster, easier and more carefree to pirate.


Hell, in Australia, if you BUY or RENT a dvd, you're FORCED to sit through a 1min anti-piracy add, then about 5mins or commercials/advertising for other movies. to me that's punishing a customer by throwing an onslaught of bull**** that their forced to watch on a product they just paid for.... you dont get that crap with piracy.... :P

[Luke]

(...)
Hell, in Australia, if you BUY or RENT a dvd, you're FORCED to sit through a 1min anti-piracy add, then about 5mins or commercials/advertising for other movies. to me that's punishing a customer by throwing an onslaught of bull**** that their forced to watch on a product they just paid for.... you dont get that crap with piracy.... :P
Yes. this just shows how much folks that should care to have broad and happy consumer base treat people who make their living possible . Crappy protections are broken in minutes, but they cost serious $$ to develop (and this cost is again transfered to consumer) .. and in the end they treat people who actually shelled out money for their products like thieves. Maybe it's me but this shows utter lack of respect. And remember: money is just a claim on your energy.
Again that is staple of control system: they think they own your energy because you breathe, not because they provide product worthy of paying. This extend to all branches business (and government, but that is just business after all, or should be) in flawed/distorted market. There is no connection between happy customer and profit, as it should be if the market would be free.
I repeat: Way I see it we are dealing with artificially created scarcity that is designed to leech of energy of people involved. Bandwidth problems are usually tied to govt-induced limitations/quotas/licences that blocks growing of infrastructure to satisfy needs of consumers.
This system is made to fight problems it created in the first place. Perpetuum-bloody-mobile.

Btw. Think infrastructure-less "overnet" is quite high on my focus list. Dunno yet how precisely it would work, but idea is to connect places without regards to distance, by using means similar to entangled "particles" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement). This way you can create networks that need no physical lines that can be cut, with theoretically unlimited bandwidth. Physics say it's possible. Care to put energy to make it manifest?

[DoctorWho]

Red Box kiosks with $1 DVD rentals for 3 days (I think). Simple, quick, and no fuss.
Bill "the Doctor"