Movie rental kiosks have overtaken traditional video stores in DVD and Blu-ray disc rentals, with the trend expected to continue this year.
Considering Blockbuster remains the last major movie store that sells and rents movies, this news has been expected for quite some time. The company ended 2010 by closing another 182 stores, as a focus on streaming and rental kiosks forces the continue to adapt.
The movie rental kiosk market is led by Redbox and Blockbuster Express, with other companies finding it extremely difficult to crack into the market. Rental kiosks gained 10 percent year-over-year marketshare, but competitors have been unable to compete with Redbox.
Even Redbox has to find new ways to evolve, and has included Blu-ray movie rentals, mulled game rentals, as there is now growing demand for content to be shared and sold through flash drives as well.
"The rental landscape for DVDs and BDs continues to shift, and consumers are obviously responding positively to the perceived value and convenience of kiosks," NPD analyst Russ Crupnick said in a recent interview. "Traditional video retailers will no doubt experience even more competition in the coming year, as kiosks appear more frequently in grocery store chains, mass merchandisers and quick-serve restaurants, and as competition intensifies from an assortment of on-demand rental offerings.”
As kiosks overtake movie store rentals, Redbox and Blockbuster both understand they need to continue to evolve to compete with rivals. Redbox will introduce a streaming service sometime in 2011, while Blockbuster moves ahead with its On Demand service.
My local grocery store previously had one Redbox kiosk, but has added a second rental unit due to higher demand -- and the realization that some movies are out of stock almost every time I visit the box. Even with the second Redbox available, I still have little interest in using the service any more.
Streaming TV episodes and movies offer an even more convenient solution with a much larger content catalog to browse, though I still haven't left kiosks and move rentals behind completely.
