Business
Are The Days Of DVD Rental Stores Over?
It appears that the countdown has begun for DVD rental stores.
Telstra has announced that more than 3,000 movies for rent will now be available on tablet devices. The move is a strategic response to the market’s transition from TV to tablets. Tablet devices are becoming the second screen in many Australian households.
Telstra is one of the leading media and telecommunications companies in Australia. The company offers a wide range of services like broadband access and content, Internet services, cable distribution, local and long distance calls, and others.
T-Box, a technology by Telstra, allows customers to view TV content online. Its order movies facility is also available to close to 300,000 homes.
In December 2011, Telstra customers downloaded more than 400,000 films. In the next few weeks, customers of Telstra will be able to order movies online and watch these in different tablet formats.
The development significantly affects the future of DVD rental stores. IBISWorld estimates that DVD rental stores will go extinct in the next three years. Currently, there are about 176 rental stores that still operate. IBISWorld is a market research company that monitors industry developments.
Professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers forecast that the online movie industry will grow $239 million in the next three years.
Tech companies are quick to adapt to the market with Apple’s iTunes carrying 80 new releases each month. Fetch TV also maintains its own library of 1,000 movies. Fetch chief executive Scott Lorson said that the company’s strength lies on its ability to replicate the user experience in a video store.
