UPDATED 11:31 EDT / APRIL 06 2011

Dish Makes it a Blockbuster Night with $228M as Netflix Finds a Home for ‘Mad Men’

blockbuster-video-storeThe streaming multimedia floodgates have opened up with the dawn this morning as news of Blockbuster’s imminent demise via bankruptcy has been redirected by Dish Networks swooping in and winning the auction. The satellite TV company bid $320M on the failing movie rental store chain; but they will likely only pay about $228M for the entire business once all is said and done.

Devindra Hardawar at VentureBeat looks at this from Dish Networks perspective, and we have to agree–they don’t have much reason to keep the brick-and-mortar stores around except as a strange legacy to Blockbuster’s old business model,

Perhaps the smartest thing for Dish to do is rid itself of even more Blockbuster retail locations and focus on a wider proliferation of its kiosks, which compete directly with DVD kiosk company Redbox, and focus more on its video streaming service, which is available on multiple mobile and TV set-top devices.

The purchase also opens the door for Dish to offer cross-promotion deals with its satellite TV and Blockbuster’s services. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dish ends up offering free Blockbuster streaming accounts and disc rentals to its subscribers as an added bonus. The combination of Dish and Blockbuster could attack Netflix — which doesn’t offer rental kiosks or traditional TV service — from multiple sides.

“Blockbuster will complement our existing video offerings while presenting cross-marketing and service extension opportunities for Dish Network,” Tom Cullen, executive vice president of sales, marketing and programming for Dish Network, told Reuters.

As a satellite TV carrier, Dish Networks must compete with both terrestrial TV broadcasters and cable TV carriers, so they’re edging for their own variation on streaming and other media distribution. Netflix has done an excellent job of snapping up huge portions of the market when it comes to postal mail DVD distribution and Internet streaming. Other carriers, such as Dish Networks, need to do more than just broadcast current television programming in order to survive in this environment; they need to provide some sort of value-added to their customers to keep them from jumping ship to terrestrial networks that offer much more for cheaper.

Right now, many customers carry at least one subscription service and Netflix at the same time in order to fill out the rough edges. While subscription and play-on-demand style networks cover current TV extremely well, they don’t provide easily time shifted series archives.

In fact, Netflix is pushing the boundaries of its own offerings by putting a bid in for AMC’s extremely popular Mad Men. They’re already extensive offering of well-liked television shows makes them a powerful contender in the streaming TV market. In fact, even with Blockbuster venturing into the postal mail DVD market and streaming, Netflix still wiped the floor with them. Only a month ago, Netflix even announced the acquisition of numerous titles from CBS’s lineup for streaming—from CSI: to 60 Minutes—which will only make them a stronger competitor.


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