Blockbuster to Announce Set-top Box This Month

It looks like Blockbuster is taking swings in the set-top box on deck circle as they prepare to make an announcement this month. According to Reuters, Blockbuster’s next big move will be the addition of a set-top box solution that will allow them to stream video content directly to televisions. Of course just as with Total Access, Blockbuster is in catch-up mode with any offering it might be preparing to announce. If Blockbuster can manage to bring its box to market before Netflix however, it might be able to make quite an impact. Total Access is not experiencing anywhere near the success that Netflix is, but those customers who do use Total Access are often happy to pay the extra few dollars per month for the ability to exchange mailed DVDs for free in-store rentals. The addition of a streaming service could cause plenty of current Netflix customers to jump ship, especially considering the fact that the Netflix download service is hardly what customers were hoping for at this point. If Reuters is correct we could see an offering from Blockbuster later this month, well ahead of the predicted launch of Netflix’s set-top product. Will this mean trouble for Netflix? Are both Netflix and Blockbuster getting ahead of themselves when considering the fact that AppleTV hardly lived up to the hype? Only time will tell if the general public is ready for set-top boxes or if we have a ways to go before download-to-TV services become part of the mainstream.

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