Audio Video News

Blockbuster Video this week announced two significant upgrades to its rental programs. First, Blockbuster Online users are now allowed to return movies either through the mail or into a Blockbuster store. The "Total Access" service includes one free in-store rental per month, but customers are awarded an additional free in-store rental for each movie returned to a Blockbuster store.

In addition to the instant gratification of taking the free movie rental of choice home right away, Blockbuster's computer system captures the returned movie instantly and the next movie in the customer's online queue is automatically mailed out.

All current Blockbuster Online customers have been upgraded to the new Total Access program, including those signed up for the lowest tier of service, which costs $5.99 per month for two movies per month, with one out at a time. The top tier of service is $23.99 per month for unlimited rentals with as many as four movies out at a time.

Blockbuster's obvious hope is that this combination of online and in-store rentals is enough to allow the company to gain ground on online DVD rental giant NetFlix. According to Video Business, Blockbuster was at 1.5 million online subscribers at the end of Q3 and has set its sights on reaching 2 million by year's end. According to the same VB story NetFlix is far out in front with a current subscriber base of 5.7 million.

Blockbuster also announced this week that it would begin renting both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs in-store to its customers with no price premium involved. Each participating store will carry about 40 titles per format, and the company said it will monitor market trends and expand when appropriate.