Meanwhile, NCR Corp. has an agreement with Blockbuster Inc. to deploy “Blockbuster Express” DVD rental kiosks made by NCR.
The company also acquired two DVD rental kiosk operators, TNR Holdings Inc. and DVDPlay last year.
NCR announced in 2009 that it was moving its headquarters from Dayton to Duluth, Ga. NCR had been based in Dayton for 125 years.
In mid-May, Coinstar operated 22,400 Redbox machines while NCR has 5,000 of its kiosks in place, according to Fortune magazine.
Redbox is currently Standard Register’s largest In-Mold customer.
“It’s a great example of In-Mold because it provides to Redbox what they’re looking for, and that’s the durability and the permanence of that image,” said Tom Furey, president of Industramark, the Standard Register unit which provides In-Mold labeling.
Furey notes that Industramark has had discussions with molders who make cases for NCR/Blockbuster to provide In-Mold technology to them.
If a business relationship is struck, Industramark could work for both Coinstar and NCR/Blockbuster, Furey said.
Standard Register officials stressed that they don’t consider NCR a competitor. In fact, NCR is a Standard Register customer in other areas, they said.
Eric Savitz, a technology blogger for Barron’s, believes that near-term, DVD kiosk machines have a future, particularly with Hollywood Video shutting down. He agrees with other industry observers that digital downloading could be an issue, but that way of watching movies is far from mainstream today.
“The kiosks are targeted at mainstream consumers, not those on the cutting edge,” Savitz wrote in an e-mail to the Dayton Daily News.
He also feels that Blockbuster’s future could be an issue for NCR. Observers have questioned the company’s future as DVD rental firm Netflix and Redbox have surged in their respective arenas.
Blockbuster plans to close several hundred company-owned stores this year, and its stock price has fallen from $10 five years ago to about 34 cents per share on Friday.
“The one thing on NCR is what happens if (Blockbuster) goes bust, which I think is a very high risk,” Savitz said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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