Movie rental company Redbox is planning to launch a subscription-based streaming service. The L.A. Times reports that during a meeting with analysts yesterday, Redbox President Mitch Lowe confirmed the company’s plans to expand beyond its movie rental kiosks.
That would put Redbox head-to-head with Netflix, which recently announced it had surpassed 20 million subscribers and is also working on shifting its business from the disc shipping to the Internet-streaming business. Indeed, customers are increasingly turning to the Web to watch movies, rather than to DVDs.
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It’s been known for quite some time Redbox would eventually make this move into movie streaming, and its owner company Coinstar said as much last year.
Redbox has been gauging its customers’ interest in a streaming plan, asking in a survey last year if they would be interested in a $3.95 per month subscription plan. That means that for those who rent four or more movies from Redbox a month (at its current $1 per film rate), that’s a good deal – and quite competitive with Netflix’s subscription plan.
Despite Redbox’s confirmation that a streaming service is in the works, its partners in the endeavor have not been identified. According to the L.A. Times, “several people familiar with the matter have confirmed that Amazon.com is in talks with studios to acquire content for a Netflix-like subscription movie streaming service set to launch soon, making it a likely candidate to be Redbox’s partner.” Earlier this year, Amazon acquired the European rental and streaming service LoveFilm.
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