Blockbuster UK goes into administration
16 January 2013, 03:17 PM
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Blockbuster - Another one bites the dust
16 January 2013, 04:05 PM
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Blockbuster UK goes into administration
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16 January 2013, 04:11 PM
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16 January 2013, 04:18 PM
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16 January 2013, 04:26 PM
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16 January 2013, 04:44 PM
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We used to enjoy going to local Blockbuster. We'd spend more time arguing over what film to hire than actually watching it. Great way to completely lose a wet Sunday afternoon.
We use Sky on demand which is pretty good.
We use Sky on demand which is pretty good.
16 January 2013, 04:48 PM
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They had come down in price recently. We still used it around once a month. Most new releases were £1.99-£2.99. Quite a bit cheaper than xbox live or sky.
But, I also said to the mrs only last month that if Blockbuster are still around in a years time, I'd be amazed! I just couldn't see how they were making enough money to cover their costs.
They could have easily been dominating the movie download market now. The brand was already in place for christ sake. Same thing goes for HMV.
Yes, I feel sorry for the employees but they must have had an idea simply by the amount of business they were turning over. Sign of the times people - keep up or shut up!
But, I also said to the mrs only last month that if Blockbuster are still around in a years time, I'd be amazed! I just couldn't see how they were making enough money to cover their costs.
They could have easily been dominating the movie download market now. The brand was already in place for christ sake. Same thing goes for HMV.
Yes, I feel sorry for the employees but they must have had an idea simply by the amount of business they were turning over. Sign of the times people - keep up or shut up!
16 January 2013, 04:56 PM
#21
Sad, but I was wondering how they were keeping going, they, and HMV are a victim of progress in the delivery of media, it has a tragic ineviatability about it, companies that existed solely to respectively sell and rent physical media going bump.
The technology for films and music was only ever a bodge until solid state storage and software could provide the same functionality. I remember pondering, as a kid with a Commodore 64 in the eighties, when it played a short and crackly sample in a game that music could obviously be stored electonically and that at some point it would be available like that instead of records and tapes, as time went on it became more obvious, when I downloaded my first MP3 (Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys) in 1999 it seemed like it had already happened but nobody else had realised, the first portable MP3 players were of very low capacity but again, obvious where it was going.
When the internet came of age and speeds increased it was only a matter of time, nobody really needs to physically own the media any more, I dont want to use up part of my house to store my film collection, I dont really want to watch many things twice and I certainly dont want a wall devoted to CD's, I just want varied stuff available instantly for a modest charge.
Physical media was only every temporary, progress lays waste to what has gone before, nobody wants to drive a mile or two to a video shop, find a film is out and have to get another, go home, watch it and then drive it back, massively inneficient and time consuming.
As with all these things there will be some folk that cling to the old methods and refuse to change but why bother, we need to move with the times, Netflix and its ilk is going to clean up, it is just better.
This will happen more and more, E readers are becomign more prevalent, newspapers are physical and less peopel are buying them due to phones and tablets, again more efficient because it requires no movement of tonnes of printed matter, a handful of electrons sent to your device is much better, we only did Newspapers, a convulted and inefficient medium because a general purpose device to view news on didnt exist, now it does, we can stop chopping trees down and generating millions of tonnes of landfill.
CRT tv's were another example of a bodge to provide a function despite the method being rather complex and huge, we always hankered after the "flat telly", it is here now and being refined and improved, nobody wants a hulking great CRT that goes back three feet, has a realtively small screen, weights as much as a small crt and has a crap resolution, again, progress when it happens destroys what has gone before.
I think in ten years, Graphene will be making waves in all sorts of areas, I am envisaging a qunatum leap in processor technology (mainly) power consumption and battery performance, there will be a massive knock on for electricity as power for transport, more efficient motors and better battery storage, the Internal Combustion engine, in say thirty years will look as outadated as a VHS Cassette, I mean, come on, a machine that burns distilled oil versus a small, quiet, clean, simple electric motor, its coming, I guarantee it, its already started.
Its kind of like simplicity needed some complex technology to exist.
Feel sorry for those losing their jobs but it was always going to happen, I do wonder what will happen to the high street now though, on the same parade where I live was Jessops which has gone and been replaced by a Costa, we only need so many coffee shops.
The technology for films and music was only ever a bodge until solid state storage and software could provide the same functionality. I remember pondering, as a kid with a Commodore 64 in the eighties, when it played a short and crackly sample in a game that music could obviously be stored electonically and that at some point it would be available like that instead of records and tapes, as time went on it became more obvious, when I downloaded my first MP3 (Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys) in 1999 it seemed like it had already happened but nobody else had realised, the first portable MP3 players were of very low capacity but again, obvious where it was going.
When the internet came of age and speeds increased it was only a matter of time, nobody really needs to physically own the media any more, I dont want to use up part of my house to store my film collection, I dont really want to watch many things twice and I certainly dont want a wall devoted to CD's, I just want varied stuff available instantly for a modest charge.
Physical media was only every temporary, progress lays waste to what has gone before, nobody wants to drive a mile or two to a video shop, find a film is out and have to get another, go home, watch it and then drive it back, massively inneficient and time consuming.
As with all these things there will be some folk that cling to the old methods and refuse to change but why bother, we need to move with the times, Netflix and its ilk is going to clean up, it is just better.
This will happen more and more, E readers are becomign more prevalent, newspapers are physical and less peopel are buying them due to phones and tablets, again more efficient because it requires no movement of tonnes of printed matter, a handful of electrons sent to your device is much better, we only did Newspapers, a convulted and inefficient medium because a general purpose device to view news on didnt exist, now it does, we can stop chopping trees down and generating millions of tonnes of landfill.
CRT tv's were another example of a bodge to provide a function despite the method being rather complex and huge, we always hankered after the "flat telly", it is here now and being refined and improved, nobody wants a hulking great CRT that goes back three feet, has a realtively small screen, weights as much as a small crt and has a crap resolution, again, progress when it happens destroys what has gone before.
I think in ten years, Graphene will be making waves in all sorts of areas, I am envisaging a qunatum leap in processor technology (mainly) power consumption and battery performance, there will be a massive knock on for electricity as power for transport, more efficient motors and better battery storage, the Internal Combustion engine, in say thirty years will look as outadated as a VHS Cassette, I mean, come on, a machine that burns distilled oil versus a small, quiet, clean, simple electric motor, its coming, I guarantee it, its already started.
Its kind of like simplicity needed some complex technology to exist.
Feel sorry for those losing their jobs but it was always going to happen, I do wonder what will happen to the high street now though, on the same parade where I live was Jessops which has gone and been replaced by a Costa, we only need so many coffee shops.
16 January 2013, 05:03 PM
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Professor Ajay Bhalla, of Cass Business School, said: "The company, like HMV, failed to transform its business model early enough. When it did, it found a fundamentally altered competitive landscape where the platform model had destroyed the traditional retail one.
"Firms like Blockbuster failed to face up to the enormity of the change and altered their business model on the fringes (eg selling second-hand products), rather than coming up with an innovative offering. It is shocking that the board and executive management failed to make bold choices."
"Firms like Blockbuster failed to face up to the enormity of the change and altered their business model on the fringes (eg selling second-hand products), rather than coming up with an innovative offering. It is shocking that the board and executive management failed to make bold choices."
16 January 2013, 05:16 PM
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Granted, you got me on that one, I did it once back in November
Last edited by Oldun; 16 January 2013 at 05:37 PM.
16 January 2013, 07:42 PM
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If it wasn't for me having the American netflix i probably would of canceled my sub long ago,i thought the UK one is pants.
Blockbusters should of made moves long ago,even tesco has blinkbox.
Blockbusters should of made moves long ago,even tesco has blinkbox.