Redbox, a subsidiary of Coinstar, has more than 26,000 kiosks nationwide and in September celebrated its one billionth rental, according to Kate Brennan, a company spokeswoman.
“Each Redbox kiosk features up to 200 titles and 630 movies, making it a fully automated video rental store contained in 12 square feet of retail space,” Brennan said.
Jodi Tobe, a Sinclair Community College student from Fort Recovery, used to rent from Blockbuster stores before discovering Redbox, she said.
Tobe now rents from Redbox kiosks about once a week because of the low $1 nightly rental fee and convenient area locations, including select McDonald’s restaurants, Walmart, Walgreen’s, Meijer and Kroger stores. “They are everywhere,” she said.
The kiosks create additional traffic for the stores in which they are located, according to Durmusoglu. “It adds another functionality to the grocery store,” he said.
Blockbuster, which filed for bankruptcy in September, launched Blockbuster Express rental kiosks in partnership with NCR Corp. to compete with Redbox.
NCR was based in Dayton for 125 years until it moved its headquarters to Georgia.
Standard Register Co., based in Dayton for 99 years, provides its In-Mold labeling process to Coinstar’s Redbox kiosks.
While the NPD study focused on actual physical DVD and Blu-ray Disc rentals, rentals using subscription streaming services, video on-demand from cable and satellite providers, and digital rentals from online sources such as iTunes also are growing in popularity. Netflix in November introduced a streaming-only service.
Blockbuster also offers a streaming movie service, Blockbuster On Demand, using a digital media player that connects your television to the Internet
In partnership with another company or companies, Redbox will bring a Redbox-branded digital product to market this year, Brennan said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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