Research Recap

Blockbuster Woes Symptomatic of Dwindling DVD Market

Peter Tulupman, Director of Communications at NCR Corporation provides the following statement:

I believe there is some confusion regarding the reporting of NCR and Blockbuster’s role in the roll-out of the Blockbuster Express kiosks. The Blockbuster Express kiosks are owned and operated by NCR. We have a revenue sharing agreement with Blockbuster(BBI). The way your article is written, it appears as though BBI is driving the Blockbuster Express kiosks and that the revenue generated from this business will go to BBI to help that company, versus go to NCR, who owns and operates the boxes. I write this because in your story its stated:

The challenge is that NetFlix (NFLX) is synonymous with home delivery and RedBox’s $1 pricing is hard for Blockbuster to match without foregoing the revenue it needs to maintain its liquidity. Blockbuster has powerful allies in the movie studios who are worried that RedBox’s pricing model is wreaking havoc in the DVD market. Still, they may not succeed in forcing higher pricing on RedBox, or it may come too late to help Blockbuster

Even though we have not publicly stated what our revenue sharing agreement is with Blockbuster, I want to be clear that this business is NCR’s business and we are moving forward with deployment of Blockbuster Express kiosks, as evidenced by an announcement this week to roll out kiosks in Publix Super Markets www.ncr.com/about_ncr/....

NCR, as a global leader in self-service solutions, is applying its expertise to the entertainment industry to offer consumers a fast, easy and convenient way to access entertainment. The company sees entertainment as a very large opportunity and the Blockbuster Express kiosks is a key factor in driving that business. It is the company’s goal to become the leading provider of self-service entertainment solutions.