Redbox Will Stick to Films With Online Streaming

The movie-rental company will debut its subscription streaming service later this year.

March 07, 2011

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. - When Redbox debuts its subscription online streaming service later this year, the movie-rental company will likely only offer films, Marketing Daily reports. Rental competitor Netflix stocks TV episodes and movies on its streaming service.

"Unique about our consumer is that they ... consume a lot of movies, and so it may be a different consumer base than the kind of core Netflix one that wants to stream a lot of TV," said Galen Smith, a corporate vice president with Coinstar, which owns Redbox.

Coinstar will team up with another company for the online streaming portion of Redbox and that has spurred speculation that Redbox might move into television. Coinstar CEO Paul Davis said Redbox might be behind Netflix on offering subscription video streaming, his company would quickly outpace its rival.

Redbox has a unique marketing presence that will catapult it ahead of Netflix, Davis said, including its brand exposure by having rental kiosks in fast-food restaurants like McDonald??s, drugstores like CVS, convenience stores like 7-Eleven, supermarkets like Kroger and big-box retailers like Walmart. Redbox also has acquired 22 million subscribers?? email addresses, and around 30 million active credit card users.

Davis told investors that Redbox has an active customer base between 22 million and 30 million. He said Redbox was considering a subscription online streaming program similar to Netflix, a departure from Redbox??s current rent-as-you-go strategy. Davis said the streaming content would complement, not compete, its kiosk business.

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