![]() Comparing it to any service you pay for is unfair. The key to appreciating Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) services is to manage expectations. Redbox Free Live TV is the most recent addition to Redbox’s streaming efforts, which partnered at launch with Lionsgate. It’s unclear if this was a special thing for the duration of the pandemic, or if it will continue now that people can go back to actual theaters. It ain’t cheap, though: around $20-25 (that’s for renting, remember, not buying). This means you can rent movies while they’re still in theaters. ![]() Redbox has featured several “home theatrical” releases over the last couple of years. Like most streaming rentals, you have 30 days from purchase to start the movie, and 48 hours to watch it once you start it. Rentals start at $1.99 for older titles, $3.99 for new releases. Instead of trying to go directly head-to-head with Netflix, On Demand has no subscription plan and offers popular new releases along with older titles for rental or purchase. Redbox On Demand is the evolution of the earlier streaming service, Redbox Instant. Hardcore fans of renting DVDs can enroll in Redbox+, a yearly subscription program that gives you 12-24 free rentals from a pre-selected pool of movies and gives Redbox renters until midnight to return their videos (normally the return cut-off is 9 pm). Price seems to vary a little, but is generally around $2/day for each title, more for Blu-Ray. In addition to being able to select at the machine, you can still reserve DVDs and Blu-Ray online and pick them up at the box most convenient to you. This would be the now-familiar, nigh-inescapable red kiosks. Redbox is actually several different services, as the company experiments with diversifying and trying on different streaming models. Though hit hard by the pandemic (and accompanying Hollywood dry spell), Redbox has big plans for the future and its 39 million members as it continues to transition to a hybrid disc/digital model. In 2020, it launched Redbox Free Live TV, and took the company public in 2021. Later that same year it formed Redbox Entertainment, a movie and TV production arm. In 2019, it released its first Redbox Original, the indie movie Benjamin. In 2017, it started offering Redbox On Demand, which allows customers to rent or buy videos online. But Redbox is not getting (completely) left behind by the streaming boat. These days, the cheerful red machines are still common in or around supermarkets, minimarts, and drug stores. They were extremely simple to use, super-cheap, and - best of all - you could return the DVDs or video games to any machine, not just the one you rented them from.īy 2007, Redbox had more locations than Blockbuster, and continued going strong as the brick-and-mortar rental stores went out of business and through multiple legal battles with movie studios. This led to the rise of Redbox‘s bright red machines. Netflix was just starting to impinge on Blockbuster and Hollywood Video’s turf with online mail-order DVD rentals. He thought they just needed a different product. They didn’t do very well, but one member of the team, Gregg Kaplan, thought the concept was good. Way back in the early aughts, McDonald’s (yes, the fast food restaurant) started experimenting with convenience store vending machines. ![]() But do they meet the challenges of 2022 and beyond? Pros It’s clear from its business strategies that Redbox understands that convenience in video renting and buying is of the utmost importance. From DVD rental vending machines to hybrid purchase/ad-supported online streaming, Redbox has changed with the times and kept on trucking. Redbox is quite the adaptation success story.
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