Dish No Longer Looking to Turn Blockbuster Into Netflix Rival, Might Not Know What to Do With It
When Blockbuster was snatched up by Dish Network, the plan was to turn the brand into something of a Netflix rival by providing streaming content to mobile devices sold by Dish. Unfortunately, Dish’s expectations of federal approval didn’t come to fruition, and so that plan initially fizzled and now it looks like they’re not going to pursue it further. It looks like Charlie Ergen, founder and chairman of Dish, might not know what exactly to do with Blockbuster now that they have it.
Bloomberg explains:
The company has other plans for Blockbuster on which Ergen declined to comment. Dish has spent “a lot of time” talking with cable networks about an Internet streaming service for live programming, although the service is probably still “years away,” Ergen said.
“Worst case, we’ll take our money after having wasted some time, not much money, and life goes on,” Ergen said.
Basically, Ergen is refusing to comment on “other plans” because they’re probably so nebulous as to be nonexistent. Where do you go with a brand previously associated with video rentals if not to some kind of massive streaming service? Blockbuster Online’s never been beefy enough to compete with Netflix, but any other avenue seems even less hopeful.
- Blockbuster filing for bankruptcy was kind of inevitable
- Their purchase by Dish Network was a surprise, though
- Not that Blockbuster didn’t keep trying
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