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Dish Unveils Blockbuster Movie Pass
What a letdown. Dish Network does the dance of the seven veils as it hints that it will take on Netflix, and the big news today is that it will re-brand Blockbuster’s existing streaming and mail-order DVD rental service — and offer it to Dish Network customers willing to pay an extra $10 a month? There’s no way around it: With Blockbuster Movie Pass, Dish just blew a golden opportunity to seize the momentum from Netflix, which is still reeling from the consumer backlash to its 60% price hike for subscribers who want to continue to stream movies and rent DVDs by mail. Blockbuster Movie Pass can stream 3,000 movies to TV sets, and 4,000 to PCs; that’s 25% or less of what Netflix offers.
Even Dish doesn’t try to sell this as an important new service. The press release calls Blockbuster Movie Pass “the most comprehensive TV entertainment programming package ever delivered by a multichannel pay TV provider” and a “pay TV industry first.” Who cares? Blockbuster Movie Pass is simply a come-on to subscribe to Dish. That’s understandable for a company that lost 135,000 customers in the second quarter, bringing its total to 14.1M. Investors seem to be pleased that the initiative doesn’t come with a big price tag; Dish shares are up 4.9% this afternoon. But they should enjoy the gains while they can. If this is the best Dish can do, then the company is in for a lot of hurt as Amazon, Apple, Google, Walmart and even Netflix figure out that consumers want to see a slick service, not just a cagey marketing campaign.
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Well said! People want a comprehensive viewing experience. These services should essentially mimic subscription TV – but with searchable library, social-media integration, product recommendation and customized rating (Netflix should keep innovating!).
This Dish/Blockbuster announcement is cagey marketing indeed.
it’s these clowns’ inability to see the future which allowed the little-known netflix to gain massive traction in the first place.
Expected from Dish. Poorly run company that has always taken advantage of its customers and has never been accused of being innovative.
Dish was faced with doing a deal that is actually doable as opposed to every video geeks fantasy: access to everything for a nickle. Netflix is on schedule to die on the vine (unless it makes very expensive deals with each of the studios; but first the studios have to be convinced that it’s not going to damage their other revenue streams, so, impossible). Dish does not want to buy a company only to have it stonewalled out of existence. So instead it does this. Wise move. Should people opt for the service, you can be sure that the number of backlog titles to increase exponentially. But new, fresh titles? Not so much.
But here is the elephant in the room about which NO one is speaking … throttling.
ISPs are throttling people who stream video and it is getting bad. It is the killer of any real advance in video streaming.
Agreed. I only get 10GB a month from my wireless provider so I’m confused how others seem to be able to spend all day every day streaming movies. I figure they’re not the ones paying the bills.
I also agree. My image quality deteriorates during prime time.
Your key word was WIRELESS that tells you something, who in their right mind would stream movies over a wireless connection all the time. I have a land line, and have NO problems getting an excellent picture, oh and my price is only 19.95 a month for an internet connection, maybe people need to put down the cell phones and Ipads and start using old fashioned land lines then watch the shows on a regular television instead of a giant 10 inch Ipad screen.
I had a landline connection and you can’t stream on a landline connection.
By landline I assume Isb means DSL. My phone company only offers 1.5 Mbps in my rural community. I get unlimited downloading and have zero problem watching Netflix or Amazon on my Roku or PC. There is NO WAY I would use my cell phone for this.
I have a landline connection and I have no problem streaming Netlfix, my download speed is 10Mbps and have no problems, before I upgraded I was only getting 3Mbps and Netflix was working fine. People must be getting a decent picture because there are 12 million streaming customers and they all aren’t using cable or wireless, I can’t get either in my area.
. Instead of using the backlash against Netflix, Dish Network is just trying to play it safe. This could cost them enormously as customers start to pull the plug on both companies for other web based choices.
We used to complain about our Dish Network until we moved and had to get Time Warner Cable, then we realized how GREAT Dish’s service was. Signal almost never went out, digital cable interface and dvr were very intuitive and rock-solid, good customer service that always offered to give discounts if there was a problem, etc.
Then came Time Warner. Ugh. Don’t get me started.
Point is, I’m thinking that Dish has a good rep with its users, so when faced with paying a few more bucks to try out a new package like the Blockbuster service, people will prob try it. Now it’s just up to them to upgrade it.
But, seriously, people, you think Netflix is going to go under? Give me a break — their brand is a powerhouse and they are the ONLY reliable streaming service right now (and DVD mailing service, which is still a viable market — people still buy cd’s right? Well, older people, but hey, it’s a market that needs to be served.). All these other jokers have been nipping at their heels for, what, 3-4 years now and yet I hear no buzz about them, only complaints.
Here’s is what I don’t get about all this, why isn’t anyone service stepping up in netflix wake and saying “We still believe in the DVD by Mail Model, and we are going to cater to that market, instead of just using it as an entry point to sell you something else.” It seems like a simple enough business plan. netflix wants out of that world but there are still clearly plenty of people willing to subscribe to that service.
The only explanation I can think of is that running a large scale DVD by mail rental service must not be profitable enough on its own to make it worthwhile.
Actually, there were several providers out there a few years ago. Neflix’s excellent service and quick DVD turnaround coupled with Redbox eventually drove them all away. Even Blockbuster couldn’t beat Netflix and they had far more current releases.
DISH doesn’t come close to DIRECTV. They can fumble around all they want… they stink.
Gee, I wonder why no other company “seizes the opportunity” to “take momentum from Netflix”? Could it be, say, because THEY WOULD ONLY LOSE MONEY. It’s amazing how entitled people got with the loss leader pricing and how many just assume any company could come along and offer as much or more streaming content for less.
The only possible way a company could beat Netflix on content and pricing would be if the studios and major library owners got together for theatrical like they did for TV with Hulu and put up their own content into a JV. Otherwise anyone else will have the same problems Netflix does now.
This is unbelievabel. When will these damn companies wake up and stop trying to fleece each and every one of us, for the mere sake of putting extra dollars into their own wallets? They had a golden chance to take away Netflizx customers and this is the best Dish can come up with? Blockbuster doesn’t look too good either here.
And I was considering switching… oh well. Still stuck with the best option out of a sea of terrible options.
It must be really hard to do what Netflix is doing, otherwise they wouldn’t have so, few, real, challengers. No wonder Netflix is treating their customers like a dirty rag, they know no one can compete with them, so they act like a$$es. I have neither the means nor the resources to build a company to go against Netflix. Is there not one capable person or group out there that’s hungry enough to take on Netflix, and practically steal all their unhappy, customers away? The world would applaud you for putting the greedy bastards in their place, and you will get rich at the same time. Perhaps some Netflix defectors could start their own business – just throwing some ideas out there, you know.
NO one is doing it because out of 24 million customers Netflix has there was only 600K that actually quit the service, they expected to get 400k more new subscribers in the quarter and instead lost 600k the news keeps saying they lost one million but that’s only if you count the 400K they didn’t get.
So out of 24.6 million subscribers they lost 600k, not bad. It’s only the vocal EX-subscribers that fill the message boards with hate that people hear about, and now they don’t really count because they have already quit, but still keep yapping.
Maybe it’s because they CAN”T find the same value as Netflix, Blockbuster can’t do it, Amazon can’t match it. Even the great and mighty Wal-Mart’s Vudu can’t most want you to rent or buy movies by each instead of a subscription. I’m a Dish Network customer and even I wouldn’t bite on their offer 10 bucks for LESS than I get with Netflix. Who cares if it’s an extra 28 days to see a new release, you’ve already waited months after the movie hit the theaters what’s another 28 days.
It’s all about selection NOT service
Have these folks heard of torrents?
It is always easy to find fault with any enterprise. The real story is that consumers want unlimited streaming for a set price. Netflix is trying to provide it. The studios want to be paid each time somone watches a movie, listens to a song, etc. That business model is already dead. People simply do not want or need to continue to pay and pay and pay and pay. You pay for your cable connection and you pay for your ISP, then you pay for extra service which allows on demand, then you pay for premium content. You pay for netflix but then you stream content.
The studios do not want to sell content to netflix so they can bring them down but by doing so may have sowed the seeds of thier own destruction. Cunsumers of content are willing to pay a reasonable fee but they are not willing to bend over each time to do it.
There’s only one company with enough cash (and more on the way… an endless river of profits) to beat up on Netflix… think real hard now… any jump to mind?
Streaming sucks as it currently stands. The video quality looks like VHS. Awful!!!!
Netflix still rules the roost! The DISH/BB abomination is only good for DISH subs-WTF? This is why both companies are fading-they’ll be the next to go!
Actually Dish owns Blockbuster now. The prob w/ Dish’s BB Streaming is dual-fold Bandwidth requirements for watching in a reasonable amount of time (they really want to call it on demand?) and a TERRIBLE interface to the BB streaming on the receiver (we have a 722). Given how generally user interface has been a dish strong suit, it really surprises me just how bad the BB interface is. No search? No option to exclude the streaming that costs beyond the $10 plan? Seems to me the logic is this: You get movies (inc bluray) and games for the same price as Netflix streaming plus streaming that will probably irritate you with a fairly common DSL downspeed even though the quality is quite good. Oh well, we have a month to make up our mind on whether to keep it.