In about a week, Netflix will face more competition.
DISH Networks’ Blockbuster Movie Pass will be available for $10 per month, offering subscribers content by mail and movies that stream over the Internet to personal computers and televisions, beginning Oct. 1.
The package is available to DISH’s pay-TV subscribers, and DISH chief marketing officer Ira Bahr told The Associated Press that only about half of the company’s roughly 14 million customers have the necessary set-top box to stream video.
Englewood, Colo.-based DISH, which purchased the assets of bankrupt Blockbuster in the second quarter, said the package includes more than 100,000 DVD movies, TV shows and games available by mail, about 3,000 movies available for streaming to the PC or TV, and unlimited exchanges of DVDs and video games at participating Blockbuster stores. Customers also can obtain more than 3,000 video games by mail for several different game consoles, including the Nintendo Wii.
DISH is running a promotion from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, 2012, offering new customers Blockbuster Movie Pass for one year when they subscribe to Dish’s America’s Top 200 programming package or greater and commit to two years of service.
The new offering could exert further pressure on Netflix, whose sinking stock price reflects its recent struggles after the company announced a significant price increase and plans to separate its DVD by mail business from its streaming video service. Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix ended the second quarter with 25.56 million customers in Canada and the United States, but the company anticipates losing hundreds of thousands of U.S. subscribers in the third quarter after implementing a 60 percent price increase for customers who bundle the streaming video and DVD-by-mail offerings. The Netflix bundled offering used to cost $9.99 – roughly what DISH will charge for the Blockbuster package – but increased to $15.98 earlier this month.
Still, Blockbuster may have some catching up to do with Netflix in terms of content. Netflix has more than 20,000 movies and shows available to stream, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Netflix has announced a number of content agreements over the last several months. Today, the company announced a multi-year licensing agreement with DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. Netflix said the contract make it "the exclusive subscription television service for first-run feature films and select television specials" that DreamsWorks creates. Beginning with its 2013 feature films, new DreamWorks Animation titles will be made available for Netflix members to watch instantly on multiple platforms, including television, tablet, computer, and mobile phones. The agreement also will grant Netflix subscribers access over time to such titles as "Kung Fu Panda," "Madagascar 2" and "Chicken Run."
Netflix and DreamWorks did not reveal financial terms of the agreement.
