Up until now, Verizon has distributed television and movie content on a local basis for consumers signing up for its Fios service. Redbox has offered DVDs nationally to consumers through its kiosks located outside retail stores and fast food restaurants. Now, the companies have combined in a joint venture that will enable them to stream content online to any consumer paying an as yet undetermined monthly subscription fee.
"The most instant way for customers to access content is to have the option of either pushing a button or going on a two-minute drive to the store," Bob Mudge, president of Verizon consumer and mass business markets, said in an interview quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
The combined power of the joint venture would appear to be strengthened by the announcement that Redbox parent Coinstar had reached a deal to acquire NCR's 10,000 video kiosk business for $100 million. Most of NCR's kiosks currently operate under the Blockbuster brand.
In another LA Times article, Coinstar CEO Paul Davis said the deal to acquire NCR's kiosks, pending regulatory approval, was "a testament to the fact that we believe in the physical space."
- Verizon and Coinstar's Redbox Form Joint Venture to Create New Consumer Choice for Video Entertainment - Verizon/Coinstar, Inc./PRNewswire
- Redbox and Verizon to create streaming movie service - Los Angeles Times
- Redbox agrees to buy NCR/Blockbuster kiosks as revenue surges - Los Angeles Times
- Verizon-Redbox Streaming Video Service to Take on Netflix - Advertising Age