Rental kiosks don't offer quite the same convenience as streaming home video services such as Netflix or Hulu, but they've still managed to supplant the traditional brick-and-mortar alternatives.
While Blockbuster attempts to reverse its recent downfall by propagating rental kiosks and Redbox maintains its stark advantage in the arena, yet another company is testing the waters of the relatively new business with a spat of kiosks that boast a couple key advantages over the competition.
"Spot" kiosks, released by Public Media Works, Inc. throughout California, rent both DVD and Blu-ray movies, are open 24/7 and offer convenience second only to video on-demand. In that regard, the service is unexceptional. But one key difference the company boasts over its rivals is price.
Blu-ray rentals via Spot cost just $1 per single disc -- the same price asked for normal DVDs. For multiple disc rentals, the price drops to $0.89 per day. As Home Media Magazine notes, this is a bit less than what Redbox and Blockbuster Express kiosks charge.
According to the company, the benefits of the kiosks far exceed those of competitors' offerings. "Our kiosks offer double the capacity of Redbox, and dispense discs in less than 1/4th the time," reads the official site. "In addition, our kiosks have both a rent and return slot, which means no more frustrating waiting in line simply to return a disc."
"By listening to consumers we've addressed several pitfalls inherent in current kiosk offerings, including low capacity, slow service times, and the perception of price gouging for Blu-ray," said Greg Waring, the president and COO of Public Media Works, in a statement last week. "Our kiosk offers 1400 disc capacity, and fully digital merchandising, all contained in about a 3 foot by 3 foot space."
