Posted on 07/24/2011 7:31:22 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
Dish Network has decided to keep more than 1,500 Blockbuster stores open, but will close about 200, Blockbuster said Thursday. There was no immediate word on which stores will stay open or be closed.
The satcaster purchased the video retailer in April in a bankruptcy auction. Since then, there has been widespread speculation that Dish would use some Blockbuster retail locations to sell its satellite TV service and related products.
However, Netflix's recent decision to change its pricing structure may be fueling interest by Dish to keep as many Blockbuster stores open as possible. Dish's executives may now believe that Blockbuster could take business away from Netflix which has more than 20 million subscribers.
In a press release released Thursday, Blockbuster President Michael Kelly hinted that the video retailer may even try to reopen some stores in neighborhoods that have lost their Blockbusters in recent months.
"Unfortunately, despite our efforts to reach reasonable terms, some property owners have closed stores," Kelly added. "However, we'll continue to look for opportunities for physical distribution in these neighborhoods as we expand our in-store experience, unmatched for movies and family entertainment."
Blockbuster said Thursday that the decision to keep more than 1,500 stores open will save more than 1,500 jobs nationwide.
I record and watch movies on DISH in HD; but it's no contest with Blu-ray in terms of quality. The DISH HD stuff is terribly compressed. A Blu-ray will be a minimum of around 25 gigs. Longer movies will be even larger on a 50 gig disc. Ever notice the size of a DISH HD movie? If you archive them to a separate HDD as I do, it shows you the file size. Most movies are in the 4 to 5 gig range. A single layer DVD holds about 4 gigs. So, even though you are getting high-def resolution, those broadcasts are bitrate-starved. You see all sorts of macroblocking artifacts.
And movies shown on premium movie channels, like HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc are often in the wrong aspect ratio. 2.35:1 movies are shown at 1:78:1 to fill up the 16:9 screen. DISH HD is OK; but it's no substitute for Blu-ray or even HD DVD.
In fact, I would happily pay up to $49.95 a month to have the Netflix service as that is what I was paying for cable before I got the Netflix.
That depends. I don’t ever stream video, so I am happy with the disk only option for less money. And I know several people who much prefer to stream only, and they pay less as well.
I have a pretty big library myself, so am far less interested with renting current movies that are available everywhere.
I love the Netflix streaming. It is great for those of us who travel.
I can watch movies on my laptop, Ipad or droid. It’s a great value.
I love the Blockbuster DVD mailing plan. I find there service to be excellent, prices are good, and the web site is much better than NetFlix’s. I subscribe to the lowest plan on NF to get streaming, but I am constantly unimpressed with the picture quality — lots of pauses to recache, terrible pixelation, lots of “mosquito” noise, tremendous amount of banding especially in dark scenes. And that is all visible on my old 27 inch Sony Trinitron! (currently upgrading to 55 inch Panny VT30). Nothing beats the bandwidth of a disk delivered in the mail. Maybe it’s time to ditch the DSL with 1.3 Mbps down.
I’m going to downgrade to streaming only on NF for a while to see if it is watchable and maybe upgrade to higher speed DSL.
If you're not in a hurry to watch the newer releases, the public library is the best source. They're free for me..........
With my county library I can reserve them on-line then get email notification that they're ready for pick-up in the pick-up section......
I just rented the Fountainhead with Gary Cooper from our local library. It’s one of the few, if not the only, places to rent much older movies. And I can keep them for a week.
This is not field corn here. One movie might be a lot more entertaining than another. Why should pricing have to be uniform as if movies were a commodity delivered in boxcars?
We pay more for other premium stuff.
Why wouldn't pricing of movies reflect a wide variation in the quality of movies?
Better movies demand higher pricing.
Meaning I don't have to wander up and down aisle after aisle looking for a DVD that I have no idea where it is supposed to be found.......LOL!
Of course in a perfect world I could call up the library, put in my request for a DVD and a young, single nubile gal would drive to my house with my selected DVD and ..........ahem, sorry, got side tracked.
I think it all depends on how fast you turn over on Netflix. I go through a minimum of 12 and as much as 20 movies a month on Netflix between the discs and the stream, at 19.95 a month that’s a steal, even if they bump me up to 25 it’s still 2 bucks a movie at my slowest turn around. But if I was one of those folks cycling through 4 or 5 a month I wouldn’t be so willing.
People never want to hear about costs. They don’t care if Netflix’s licensing fee quadrupled in 3 months, all they see is the 4 extra bucks.
Well, the new releases are AWFUL to get from Netflix compared to what I had received from Blockbuster when I was a member.
I’m quite happy with Netflix streaming too, especially since it is the only form of entertainment I watch besides DVDs. No TV service. I watch on my laptop or my ROKU player. Very reliable. More than enough content for my needs.
Let’s see. Keeping 1,500 stores open saves 1,500 jobs. Guess each store employs one person.
Let’s see. Keeping 1,500 stores open saves 1,500 jobs. Guess each store employs one person.
Let’s see. Keeping 1,500 stores open saves 1,500 jobs. Guess each store employs one person.
Let’s see. Keeping 1,500 stores open saves 1,500 jobs. Guess each store employs one person.
Yes!
I noticed that also, one employee per store! (Guess whoever reported that detail did not do so well in math??)
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