Bob Caswell: Why Blockbuster Total Access Doesn’t Work
Movies Mailed
· 2 years ago
Netflix does seem to have a lot more die-hard fans than Blockbuster. Either way this competition keeps the prices low for everyone.
Netflix has also taken a lot more proactive role in nurturing young movie producers with their program - I think it's called Red Envelope or something similar - where they encourage and finance independent films. Blockbuster is a bit more about the money.
earnestp
· 2 years ago
Blockbuster customers overwhelmingly prefer new releases to older catalog movies. I work in LA, movie capitol of America, right? I remember when we removed the foreign section from our store on Larchmont. The customers, save for a couple, didn't even notice! So, of course, the Blockbuster Total Access catalog is skewed toward new releases, but the actual sizes of the comparative catalogs is pretty close. Especially considering that Blockbuster will ship videos directly out of its stores-- it doesn't do that as much as its warehouse capacity has increased, but for a while many of the stores were shipping out catalog titles at a surprising pace!
The beauty of the Total Access program was that it offered a convenient blend of catalog movies available anytime and new releases since you could exchange your rentals for New Releases in the store. Within the past few months, customers even had the option of having movies rented in the store automatically removed from their queues. The real problem with that is that our No Late Fees policy absolutely decimated the in-store supply of New Releases! No one brings them back!
It really saddens me that Blockbuster is deemphasizing Total Access. It was one of the few areas where I could, for a while anyway, say "See? This is something Blockbuster got right!"
Bob Caswell
· 1 year ago
Yeah, Earnest, unfortunately Blockbuster seems to be scrambling a bit, not knowing what to do next.
Fred
· 1 year ago
I honestly feel that had blockbuster put late fees back in place and had all new release rentals as 1 night rentals- they'd be back in the cash, keeping it at $17.99 for 3-out unlimited exchanges.
That would've been the best business move ever.
Bob Caswell
· 1 year ago
That's funny, Fred, considering many who follow this might think Blockbuster's traditional model was doomed for failure. But for all their pseudo-progressiveness, maybe they should have just stuck with the status-quo...
Hindsight is always 20-20, but it seems hard to believe that they'd be worse off than they are now.
Boris
· 1 year ago
Total Access was an economically artifical service. I don't know what they were thinking. BB tried movie pass a few years ago for $25 to $30 a month with 2 or 3 disc unlimited from the stores, but hardly 2 million signed up and they discontinued.
All Comments
Netflix has also taken a lot more proactive role in nurturing young movie producers with their program - I think it's called Red Envelope or something similar - where they encourage and finance independent films. Blockbuster is a bit more about the money.
The beauty of the Total Access program was that it offered a convenient blend of catalog movies available anytime and new releases since you could exchange your rentals for New Releases in the store. Within the past few months, customers even had the option of having movies rented in the store automatically removed from their queues. The real problem with that is that our No Late Fees policy absolutely decimated the in-store supply of New Releases! No one brings them back!
It really saddens me that Blockbuster is deemphasizing Total Access. It was one of the few areas where I could, for a while anyway, say "See? This is something Blockbuster got right!"
That would've been the best business move ever.
Hindsight is always 20-20, but it seems hard to believe that they'd be worse off than they are now.