Blockbuster content available on TiVo in Q2

In another move to bring its lagging brick-and-mortar business into the digital age, Blockbuster announced Wednesday that a selection of its library of movies will be available on broadband-connected TiVos by the second half of 2009. TiVo already has similar deals with  Amazon and Netflix that allow content to be streamed directly to the its DVR platform.

The main differences between the Netflix offering and the Blockbuster one are that Blockbuster On Demand will charge typical VOD fee of $3.99 for the movies it streams, but it will offer more new releases than Netflix. Blockbuster will also sell TiVo boxes directly out of the store for commission, and the two companies are set to launch a joint marketing campaign around the offering as well.

A Blockbuster official said the TiVo partnership would be the first of many the company plans to announce with consumer electronics companies in the near term. But since there is no revenue share involved in this deal, simply a sell-through channel for Blockbuster and another value-add for TiVo boxes, it is not readily apparent that these types of deals can revive Blockbuster's dying business model. 

For more:
- see The New York Times article here 

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