Blockbuster Tries New Kiosk Pricing

Blockbuster isn't the first name you may think of in connection with video rental kiosks. Its name is on only 900 of them, as opposed to 25,000 for Redbox. But Blockbuster and its kiosk partner NCR are trying some new moves with two titles, Inception and Knight and Day, hoping to attract new customers.

Rent one of them from one of Blockbuster's NCR-operated kiosks and you'll pay $3 for the first night and $1 for each additional night. If you're quick, that basically means $3, the same reduced rate Blockbuster has recently begun charging for three-day rentals of six-week-old "new" titles in its brick-and-mortar stores. But it's also a couple of bucks more than consumers are used to paying for kiosk rentals.

Why the premium pricing? NCR/Blockbuster has just signed an agreement with Fox and Universal that withholds titles from rental until 28 days after they've gone on sale. But these two titles are available for kiosk rental simultaneously with the sale date. For now there is no similar withholding deal between NCR/Blockbuster and Warner, so that studio's titles are not subject to the 28-day delay.

See Yahoo News.

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