Rich Fiscus
29 May 2008 2:06
At this year's shareholder meeting, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes showed off a new kiosk that will be introduced in 2 of the company's stores sometime in the next few weeks. The kiosk, built by NCR, is designed to transfer content directly to portable media players.
“We call it a test but it’s really a beta,” Keyes told reporters following the presentation. “The goal is to bring all the pieces together—the content, the aggregation, the device—to try to demonstrate consumer acceptance. Once we do that, we’ll be able to think about a broader test.”
The details of Blockbuster's initial plans seem to highlight the hurdles companies face for even relatively simple new delivery methods. Although they eventually plan to support a wide range of portable devices, the initial tests will only support a single unit - the Archos Generation 4. The Archos unit was chosen because of its use in an existing French service called Moovyplay. This should allow them to shorten the process of getting content for the service, since most of the major US studios are already allowing Moovyplay to distribute video using the Archos player.
Blockbuster will also sell the player itself, but unlike Moovyplay they don't have any plans to stock the unit's docking station. The docking station can be used to connect the player to a TV.
Keyes noted that he's not happy with the amount of time required to transfer movies to the Archos player from their kiosks. He expects the next generation of kiosks to reduce transfer time from 2 minutes for a feature length movie to a mere 30 seconds. “We want it to be an ATM-type experience,” he said. “You wouldn’t stand at an ATM for two minutes waiting for it to process your transaction, and we don’t want our customers to have to wait that long.”