Struggling video rental-chain Blockbuster Inc. has just announced a partnership with TV giant Samsung Electronics America Inc. to “pipe entertainment from the Internet to TV screens”.
Blockbuster rentals will be priced from $1.99 to $3.99 a piece for a 24-hour viewing experience. The video rental-chains on-demand service will be available in Samsung’s HDTVs this fall. Samsung’s next generation of HDTVs will also include a feature that allows people to rent the latest DVD releases from Blockbuster via the set’s remote control.
Blockbuster’s on-demand rental service will also be available through a software installed on Samsung’s home theater systems and Blu-ray DVD player.
This is a move by the company to gain ground on rival Netflix whose success started in 2007 by offering video streaming as a free supplement to its DVD-by-mail service. Then last year, the company tied in with a variety to gadgets to connect to TVs.
TV maker Vizio and digital recording provider TiVo Inc. are also teaming up with both Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix for video streaming.
Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtCkQwAR076huSlvFZPcNECyMn_AD99EEQ2G0
