Blockbuster has hopped on the TiVo bandwagon to bring Blockbuster's digital movie library directly to the popular media center. The companies announced Wednesday that Blockbuster's OnDemand service would be integrated into TiVo Series 2, Series 3, HD, and HD XL units in order to offer content for rental and purchase. To balance out the deal, TiVo DVRs will be sold at Blockbuster stores throughout the US and on Blockbuster's website.
Blockbuster CEO Jim Keys elaborated on the companies' joint plans for the future. "Ultimately, our vision is to work with TiVo so that their subscribers can access movies not only through our OnDemand service but also from our stores and through our by-mail service as well," Keyes said in a statement. "Regardless of a film’s availability—through VOD or on DVD—we want to work with TiVo to provide their subscribers unprecedented access to movie content."
The deal is part of Blockbuster's latest strategy to try and get its services onto every device possible. In November of 2008, the company delivered a set-top box called MediaPoint, which is meant to stream movies from Blockbuster's online library. Then, in January of 2009, BlockBuster announced that it would begin slapping its logo on CinemaNow's online movie service, allowing Blockbuster to deliver content over the Internet to a "wide assortment of home and mobile electronic devices."
The problem for Blockbuster is that it has taken so long to break out of its brick-and-mortar rental business that it's now playing desperate catch-up. The deal with TiVo would have been great a few years ago, before other, more popular content providers hopped on board. With Amazon's Video on Demand service available on the TiVo, Blockbuster isn't breaking any new ground; it's just late to the party.
Unfortunately, TiVo has become just another DVR choice for many cable subscribers. Consumers are increasingly content with the DVRs supplied by cable providers and DirecTV hasn't offered TiVos in some time (although a new HD TiVo will become available to DirecTV subscribers in the second half of 2009).
A few years ago, this announcement would have been huge, as it would have combined the top movie rental company and the top DVR maker. Now? It's a couple of companies trying to play catch-up (in the case of Blockbuster) and fighting to remain relevant in a sea of generic competitors (TiVo).
That said, it's finally a great time to be a TiVo user. With the addition of Blockbuster, we will soon have even more choices for our viewing pleasure.
The companies said that they expect to have Blockbuster's OnDemand service integrated into TiVo devices sometime in the second half of 2009.
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