Blockbuster to offer streaming set-top box

It is no secret that Blockbuster has been playing catch up with Netflix for the past few years.  Now, as Netflix has been offering streaming for the Roku for quite some time and HD streaming on newer Blu-Ray players and the Xbox 360, Blockbuster wants in.  Blockbuster quietly released its own set-top box for instant movie watching this past week.  However, instead of taking the Netflix route giving unlimited movies with a monthly fee, Blockbuster is taking a cue from Apple and the tv by charging $1.99 for every movie.

The player, called The MediaPoint, is available to anyone who wants to spend $99 and rent 25 movies from the Blockbuster ONDEMAND service.  So essentially, the player is free with 25 rentals, which isn’t too bad.  However, while HD streaming is available to those with fast enough connections with Netflix, ONDEMAND only offers DVD-quality video which it claims looks good on everything.  The videos don’t stream, though.  The MediaPoint uses progressive playback, which is supposed to keep the video quality constant at all times.

It’s doubtful that a lot of people will pick this up, or even know it exists.  To me, the only real appeal of Blockbuster is that they have brick-and-mortar stores to go to when I want a movie immediately.  Granted, this box makes it much easier than that, but I doubt anyone is going to switch from Netflix streaming to using the MediaPoint.  It is nice to see Blockbuster giving people more options for viewing their movies, but it would look better if they would come out with the services closer to when Netflix introduces theirs—it just seems reactionary to Netflix.  What Blockbuster really needs to find is something innovative before Netflix finds it.