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Blockbuster Gets Ready to Test Online Game Rental

As Blockbuster.com continues its struggle to compete with the much more popular Netflix movie rental service, the company is starting an online video game rental offering to compliment its movie offering. This was announced a while back, but today's announcement puts a date to its launch - June 30. It will start in Cleveland, but is planned to go nationwide by the end of the year. The Cleveland pilot test will be open to all Blockbuster Total Access and Blockbuster By Mail subscribers.

Blockbuster May Have Busted Its Last Block

Mom-and-Pops might get to watch Blockbuster close up shop for a change. In a filing with the SEC, the movie rental company acknowledges it may not be able to secure a $250 million loan to continue operations. Blockbuster, which operates 7,400 stores in 20 countries, had hoped to close next month on financing that would float them until 2010. Because of lender reluctance and the illiquidity facing the larger economy, however, the company may not be able to meet lenders’ terms. From the SEC filing summary:

Blockbuster To Offer Movies On TiVo

Blockbuster said today it would start offering movies and TV shows over TiVo's DVRs. Users will have access to about 10,000 movies and TV shows that can be purchased or rented on TiVo Series 2, Series 3 or HD series device. Films on Blockbuster's OnDemand service will be available for $2 to $4 for rental and purchased movies start at around $10.

Blockbuster To Offer Content On More Devices

Blockbuster has partnered with Sonic Solutions to offer Video on Demand on a wide variety of consumer electronic devices in an effort to stay competitive with Netflix.The two companies are working with a number of consumer electronic manufacturers, including Sonic's CinemaNow, to expand the ecosystem of interoperable devices offering the Blockbuster service.The devices will include PCs, portable media players, Blu-ray Disc players, set-top boxes, mobile phones and Internet -connected television sets.

Blockbuster Launches New Set-Top Box

Blockbuster is introducing its own set-top box, which will bring movies directly to a user's TV and provide access to on demand content.The MediaPoint digital media player by broadband device maker 2Wire is available to Blockbuster customers for $99 and includes 25 movies. After the initial 25 rentals, movies are available for $1.99 each to $3.99.

Netflix Outage Angers Customers

Online DVD movie company Netflix said today it is experiencing its worst major outage in its history, preventing shipments of discs to around a third of its 8.4 million customers.The company said it was unable to ship any DVDs on Tuesday, some on Wednesday and none so far on Thursday.

Carl Icahn's History Of Shaking Up Companies

Is it just me, or does Carl Icahn shake-up the Board of Directors at every company he invests in? News today suggests he’s hell-bent on replacing Yahoo’s board at the August 1st annual meeting.

Blockbuster Is Turning Profit

In the age of video on demand, advertisements touting that Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) has rented over two billion movies, the pervasiveness of peer to peer (p2p) networks, and the general drum-beat of the demise of video rental, today's earnings report from Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) is a shocker:

Is The Blockbuster-Circuit City Acquisition A Good Move?

The Wall Street Journal this morning is reporting that Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) is trying to buy beleaguered consumer electronics retailer Circuit City (NYSE: CC), which the market is not to thrilled about: Blockbuster stock dropped precipitously in early trading while Circuit City stock jumped up.

Blockbuster Has Strong Fourth Quarter

Blockbuster reported fourth quarter net income of $41 million, or 18 cents a share for 2007. Compared with $11.2 million, or four cents a share the year before.Not including charges, per share earnings increased to 26 cents from 11 cents. Revenue grew 3.6 percent to $1.57 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of 18 cents per share or revenue of $1.4 billion.