Movie and Game rental kiosksPosted by Andy Atkinson on September 5, 2007 | Post type: Gain Netflix made a huge impact on the video rental market, by offering rental service through the mail. Blockbuster eventually followed suit, offering a mail rental service (Total Access) of their own. Brick and mortar rental stores, big names and small local companies, cater to traditional, or less Internet-savvy customers, that may choose Netflix or be interested in other rental models if they had tried them out. Movie downloads are gaining popularity, but suffer from a number of drawbacks, namely digital rights management (DRM), reduced quality (to conserve bandwidth), and format problems/incompatibilities. Netflix and other companies are also getting intro video rental streaming, but like downloads, these rental solutions do not cater to customers that have been renting movies at physical stores for a couple decades (and aren't about to change). Video (and game) rental kiosks are appearing now, which offer yet another option for rental. I feel that kiosks will hit a certain part of the rental demographic more effectively.
Andy Atkinson: Most recently I tried a Hollywood Video rental kiosk in a local Minneapolis grocery store (Cub Foods), which appears to be somewhat of a pilot based on the limited information I found researching the service. For just $1, customers insert a credit or debit card, choose a DVD video or game from hundreds of selections, and have until midnight the next day to return the selection. There is no membership and the kiosks are optimized to make the rental experience as quick and easy as possible. We rented a comedy that was fairly recent. The comedy genre had probably 50-75 selections available for rent, with plenty we hadn't seen (selection was not a problem). In the case of the Hollywood Video Express kiosk, DVDs are ejected in thin, blue jewel cases, and are inserted in the same case when returned, which is also very quick. Receipts are printed at the machine or can be emailed to a specified address. Daily fees are charged for each day the video is not returned, until it reaches $20 (for DVDs) at which time it is considered a purchase. Full details and answers to more Hollywood Video Express questions are available at this FAQ. I found the service convenient, inexpensive, and fun; I'll be using it again in the future. The only question I have is why Netflix has not added this to their product portfolio. The ability to use a primarily mail rental service, but optionally return or pick-up at kiosks would be very convenient, and help diversify the Netflix customer base. Partnering with high-traffic business like grocery stores would make Netflix supremely convenient. Matt Thommes: Kiosks are intriguing to me too. In one respect, it eliminates lines and browsing physical titles on shelves. Rentals are also private. Email confirmations are also nice - as soon as I pick up or return a movie to the Redbox kiosk, an email is sent to me confirming my transaction. The drawbacks to kiosks are clearly evident, though. For one thing, the kiosk is only "open" as long as the "host" store is. For example, the other day I rented a Redbox title online, reserving a copy for myself at a nearby Walgreens. Little did I know, upon arriving at the Walgreens, that it was closed due to a power outage (heavy storms and flooding hit my area in late August). The following day that Walgreens was open again, and I was able to get my movie. I was also charged the extra $1 from Redbox, since technically I rented it for two days. Still, $1 per night is not a terrible fine, but I could have avoided that if there was some kind of notice on the Redbox web site. The Redbox site itself is very rudimentary, and kind of hard to navigate the different titles. Still, that's being picky, since it's clear Redbox focuses on simplicity. Regarding Netflix, if you ask me, I think they are a very small company that likes to stick to their "bread and butter." It took them a long time to move to video downloads, and their support for that is sketchy, at best. They've built a great thing with the mail-rental model, and I don't see them deviating from that any time soon. Although I agree, some more options from Netflix, such as kiosks, could be interesting and effective. Read more of Matt's thoughts on the Redbox service. About the author(s) Andy started Pain in the Tech in 2005 as a way to share tips and tutorials with friends and family, and evangelize great products and services. By 2008, Pain in the Tech had 7 contributors, thousands of daily page views. Site ownership was transitioned to Matt Thommes in 2008. Comments
|
Quick Link to this postTTIP.me/2034 |
I find the kiosk concept quite interesting, in the UK we constantly read about VoD, Apple etc. launching here but to me I still don't think that these services are as yet user friendly/cost effective/able to meet demand to the level that would project them into the UK mainstream. Obviously video stores are on a downward slide, so I think that the DVD rental kiosk represents a viable solution for people wanting to watch films. There are several This is a link to DVD rental kiosksspringing up in the UK, and I am interested to see how they fare. I shall keep you posted!
Quick Link to this comment: http://TTIP.me/c4690