Case Study Of Blu-Ray

On the horizon, Blockbusters number of competitors should steadily increase from new emerging technologies. If Blockbuster extends into the realm of VOD, Legal Movie Downloads, or Digital Video Recorders (DVR), it must realize there are existing and powerful players in these markets already. This new technology is shaping the market for many deals or partnerships. They will face fierce competition, but in the future, Blockbuster must not find it self on the outside looking in.

Blockbuster implemented a new strategy for customers to access their rentals in “five channels of distribution: in-store, by mail, through vending machines and kiosks, online, and at home (direct to the TV)” (DATAMONITOR, 2009). However, this strategy was a reactive approach to the problem produced ten years behind schedule. Wooldridge et al., (2007) stated that Blockbuster should select and adapt their strategy to respond to the fast changing market and maintain a competitive position. This was an obvious failure for Blockbuster. The changes in the market produced a decline in profit at a faster pace than the strategies that Blockbuster implemented to combat these losses.

There are a lot of strong competitors: Blockbuster, Apple, Red box, and etc… Beside, product in this industry is not differentiated. On the other hand, the products and services are not difficult to imitate. This market is very competitive.

2. Pirogi, Jeanine. (2013). Titled: The Rise & Fall of Blockbuster: The very Long & Rewinding Road" (The Street). N.p., 23 Sept. 2010. Wide-Web. 11-Dec.

Occasionally, people use to go out and rent DVD’s to watch a specific movie from rental stores. Advancement in technology has brought a sufficient change in customer’s behaviors, today DVD rental stores have almost gone. Moreover, by time we saw enormous increase in channels being provided by cable providers, but today even that has been replaced by streaming media devices, thus my time, role of cable providers might also disappear due to the introduction of devices such as Netflix, Apple TV etc. “DVD sales have also been hit. The Los Angeles-based Digital Entertainment Group estimates DVD sales in 2008 fell 8% to $21.6 billion from a year earlier, while DVD rentals were flat.” Charny, Ben. "Viewers Tap Free Web Content." Wall Street Journal, Eastern

Blockbuster used to have so much power in the movie rental industry until Redbox and Netflix have come to the market. One of Porter’s five forces

Retail spending on discs remained strong, indicating that physical and digital formats will continue to coexist in the marketplace. While overall disc unit sales were down 6 percent form the previous year, sales of movies and TV shows on Blu-ray continued to offset the decline in DVD sales. Sales of Blu-ray disc grew by 7 percent and accounted for 20 percent of total disc sales, up from 18 percent the previous year (Consumer Report 2013)

With the advancements in home entertainment systems, consumers are investing thousands of dollars into their own home viewing systems. They have several options to stream video content into the comfort of their own homes. Home entertainment systems have also made a large impact on the theater industry. In 2005, this technological advancement was the most sought after electronic system for new homes. It seems that consumers have finally said no to the rising price of movie tickets and concession stand snacks and beverages.

Entering and transforming the video rental industry was a large undertaking for the start-up company. The first marketing objective the company undertook was the process of building a brand. Netflix’s identity was crucial to future growth and success. Without a strong brand, competitors with deep pockets could have easily duplicated the company’s business model. Secondly, leveraging technology was critical to establishing the business and infrastructure growth. The consumer base was the final objective Netflix sought to achieve. Retaining and growing subscribers were fundamental to revenue and marketing goals.

The following is a case study of Netflix, Inc. an American-based company that provides the streaming of online media to consumers in North America, South America, and parts of Europe. This case study will provide a brief overview of the company’s history along with four present-day challenges that the company will face as it tries to stay ahead of the competition. In its discussion of the present-day challenges that Netflix, Inc. faces the discussion will also relate the proposed challenges to the managerial challenges of globalization, diversity, and ethics. After each of the four anticipated challenges have been addressed then this paper will provide an analysis of the steps that Netflix, Inc. has already taken to keep the

3. Network effects can be a major consequence of an emerging product space. Often times, they occur when an individual derives part of their own utility from the fraction of other people using the product as well. These effects though understated in the public, can be absolutely pivotal for a market and can set path dependencies that last for years. The commonly referred to instance of network effects is VHS vs. Betamax. In this case, a competition existed in the 1980s between two different video platforms that were looking to dominate the home video market. The technologically inferior VHS eventually grabbed enough of the market to give it the edge in the competition, which netted them the entire home video market. Betamax eventually

There are many different factors in the environment that influence Redbox Automated Retail. These factors include: general business ethics, United States copyright laws, the economic recession, unemployment, increased consumer debt levels, declining consumer confidence and spending, new technological advances, natural disasters, and content acquisition and license agreements. Although the previously listed factors each hold a certain degree of importance, the most relevant factors include new technological advances, content acquisition, and license agreements. The advancement in technology, such as digital access to movies via the internet, allows customers the convenience to access films directly from their home which weakens the consumer demand for DVD’s. Furthermore, content acquisition and licensing arrangements restrict the amount of titles that are available to Redbox resulting in litigation battles with large movie studios.

Netflix‘s business model and strategy compare closely to its key rivals. Although, Netflix won a patent that covered much of its business model and could be used to help stifle competition in the future (Thompson C-33) . Netflix has a team of executives that manage only the on-line DVD rental enterprise. They are well established and use a very sophisticated software program thereby making movie selection easy and fun. In my analysis, Blockbuster has many retail stores to contend with and many other facets of a business enterprise, thereby not having a unique team of individuals solely dedicated to the on-line DVD rental business. Wal-Mart would be Netflix’s greatest fear due to the enormous capital available and expertise that could be employed, yet Wal-Mart continues to lag behind Netflix. Wal-Mart’s online software needs a lot of debugging, whereas Netflix had already spent several years debugging its software (Thompson C-37).

There was a time when the only place one can watch a movie was in a cinema. Then after a while, as technology progressed, more means were evolved. There were video cassettes first, followed by CDs. The reign of CDs lasted until the format DVD was carved out. Ultimately, this evolution resulted in the pinnacle of entertainment: the Blu-ray Disc. This research paper will look at the various reasons behind the development of both the DVD,HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc and will analyze why Blu-ray Disc is better than its counterparts.

High quality picture isn’t the only element that the Blu-ray players possess. In addition to superior video, the Blu-ray players have greater audio compared to DVDs. Sony Blu-ray players can access 7.1 Surround Sound with the connection of an AV reciever. Sony added DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD decoding software to increase the audio capabilities of their Blu-ray equipment. They strived to make the audio quality as outstanding as the video quality using two BRAVIA Theatresystems (Sony’s New Blu-ray). Even if a customer doesn’t include 7.1 Surround