The video rental company Redbox is testing a new streaming service called Redbox Digital. The service is already being tested by select users on the App Store. The company would offer video on demand (VOD) and electronic sell-through (EST).
RedBox has more than 42,000 kiosks in North America. The company, which was founded by the McDonald’s Corporation, rents DVD, Blu-ray, and video games. It remains unknown how many people are participating in the trials for the new streaming service. Redbox has not provided any information about possible pricing of products. Redbox customers currently pay $1.50 for renting physical discs. Prices for VOD and EST content would be similar to those offered by Google Play, iTunes or Vudu.
Redbox Digital would offer more titles than Redbox kiosks, although the catalog would depend on contracts with movie studios. The company headquartered in Illinois had previously tried to enter the digital market in 2013 with Redbox Instant. The latter was shut down 18 months later.
A spokesperson for Redbox told Mashable that the company is continuously conducting market tests to “enhance the customer’s experience.” The Redbox Digital app available at the App Store is only working for a select group of users.
Screenshots of the app demonstrate that users would be allowed to stream movies or download them directly on their mobile devices. Variety said there’s a Cast button that would function alongside Google’s Chromecast dongles and Roku devices.
“We are testing a potential new transactional digital VOD and EST offering, with a small subset of our customers, designed to complement our core kiosk rental business. As we test and learn from our clients, we will make evaluations that determine any future course of action,” a Redbox spokesperson told Variety.
Video streaming: a massive phenomenon in the United States
Over the last four years, the market segment of video streaming services has been acquiring more and more field in the United States. Tech giants such as Google, Amazon, and Apple seem very interested in presenting innovations for what they call “the new age of TV.”
Netflix is the most popular service of video streaming in Canada and the United States. The company, headquartered in Los Gatos, California, obtained revenues of $6.77 billion in 2015.
Video streaming occupies most of the Internet downloads in the United States. Netflix alone accounts for 36.5% of all downstream Internet bandwidth during peak periods. The company occupies more bandwidth than Hulu, Amazon and Youtube together.
The massive demand for video streaming services has been increasing as more people purchase mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and hybrid computers. Currently, downloading a movie can take up to six minutes using a 4G network.
Mobile operators are planning to accelerate those speeds with 5G networks. The White House recently announced a $400-million-program to propel 5G connections in the United States. Users would download movies in less than five seconds, using this technology.
Over-the-top content: new distribution forms are arising
Over-the-top (OTT) content is also gaining popularity in the United States, among users who are not subscribed to TV providers such as Comcast or Time Warner Cable. This technology delivers content without intermediaries.
Lionsgate, TIME Inc., Legendary Digital Networks and Fandango are joining this market, which is already dominated by giants such as HBO GO and Netflix. Google is also offering OTT content via Youtube Red. The company has also announced a new catalog of original series.
Source: Variety