Blockbuster Ditches Plans For Netflix Competitor

When Dish bought Blockbuster after its bankruptcy last year, the company had plans to overhaul their movie streaming and DVD-by-mail service for Dish customers by using Blockbuster stores to sell mobile devices that would be used to stream Blockbuster movies. However, it turns out Dish is going to pull a 180 and scrap its plans to turn Blockbuster into an ultimate Netflix competitor.

The company ended up selling a lot of its Blockbuster retail locations, which will easily save the company money and even turn start turning a profit. However, around 900 Blockbuster stores will remain open in rural areas where streaming media over the internet isn't prominent. Of course, that's still almost half the number of Blockbuster stores that were once sprouted all over the country.

The mobile devices that Dish was planning on selling in Blockbuster stores didn't end up going into effect mostly because U.S. regulators didn't approve a waiver that would allow the company to use its satellite spectrum for streaming movies. Apparently, that was all it took for Dish to give up and scrap plans for the project.

Dish customers already have access to a Blockbuster online streaming service where they have access to more than 100,000 movies and TV episodes. They can also get DVDs by mail at a rate of one disc out at a time. The service only costs $10 per month, which is considerably cheaper than what Netflix offers. However, in order to really compete with Netflix, the company had to get into the mobile game, which they've been obviously struggling with. Dish still plans to shake things up with its Blockbuster service, but we're not told what those plans are exactly.

[via Bloomberg]