Redbox and Verizon's Netflix killer goes into testing, launching later this year
We wrote back in February that Redbox and Verizon would be teaming up to create a streaming video service to take on Netflix, and that service has now been christened ‘Redbox Instant by Verizon’. In other words, neither one wanted to not have their branding attached, so they described the service (instant streaming) and appended both of their names.
What the service lacks in naming originality it may make up for in utility – the idea is to supplement Redbox’s DVD rental service with an expanded set of streaming video over Verizon’s network. Of course that won’t make it so useful to you if you aren’t on Verizon, and Big Red is expected to use this as a differentiator of their 4G LTE network. Since Big Red apparently owns almost 2/3rds of the shares in the joint venture, that’s probably not going to change any time soon.
The service will apparently look to extend Redbox’s offerings, rather than compete with their disk rental model. As a result new movies will continue to be made available at physical locations, while popular catalog releases will be available for streaming. While that may seem less exciting, it does make some sense for Redbox, since they can’t keep a very large collection of movies in any one kiosk – this will let them deliver many more popular titles to customers with instant streaming.
The service is entering alpha test status today, and is still on target to launch sometime in the latter half of 2012. Any takers out there?
source: Redbox Instant via The Verge
The service is entering alpha test status today, and is still on target to launch sometime in the latter half of 2012. Any takers out there?
source: Redbox Instant via The Verge
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