GigaOM » Redbox Instant

Redbox Instant is coming to Google TV soon, Roku up next

Janko Roettgers — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:22:41 +0000

Redbox Instant by Verizon is going to bring its streaming service to Google TV devices soon: The company demonstrated a prototype of its app at Google I/O Friday, and a representative told me that the app will launch in earnest within the next few weeks. After that, the company is going to launch a channel on Roku media streamers.

Check out a photo of the app UI below:

Redbox Instant by Verizon’s prototype app was on display on an LG Google TV that ran the next version of Google TV that is based on Android 4.2.2, or Jelly Bean. That version will come to Google TV devices in the third quarter of this year, but I was told that the Redbox Instant app will be available before that, and that is going to work just fine with the current version of Google TV. However, the service won’t be available on Google TV devices using an Intel processor, which means that owners of the Logitech Revue and other first-generation devices won’t be able to use it.

Redbox Instant first launched on select Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players as well as PCs and mobile devices in March. The joint-venture between Redbox and Verizon has since added support for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 as well as select LG Smart TVs. I was told by a representative Friday that the company is looking to add support for Roku players soon after rolling out the Google TV app.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Redbox Instant app arrives on Xbox Live

Janko Roettgers — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:20:08 +0000

Xbox users can now access the new subscription video service from Redbox Instant by Verizon, thanks to a new app that launched on Xbox Live Tuesday. This is the first time the service has been available on a game console, and it also marks the beginning of a marketing campaign for Redbox Instant, which went into public beta just a few days ago.

Redbox Instant offers subscribers four Redbox DVD rentals as well as unlimited streaming access to around 4,600 movies for $8 a month. An additional 4,000 newer titles are offered as streaming rentals or purchases. After a limited-time free introductory offer, Redbox Instant customers will need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to use the service on Microsoft’s game console, which will set them back another $5 a month.

The company launched its closed beta test at the end of December, and opened up to the public mid-March after convincing tens of thousands of testers to become paying customers, according to Redbox Instant CEO Shawn Strickland.

Strickland told me last week that the launch on Xbox Live would also kick off the company’s first real marketing efforts, and that Redbox Instant would start to specifically target Verizon and Redbox customers soon after. Apps for LG, Google TV and Vizio devices would follow in the next few weeks, he added.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Redbox Instant launches publicly, CEO calls original content talk premature

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:43:13 +0000

Surprise! Redbox Instant by Verizon officially launched to the public Thursday, just as I had predicted in an earlier story. The launch comes after a three-month-long closed beta test that Redbox Instant CEO Shawn Strickland characterized as a great learning opportunity during a phone conversation Thursday morning. “Now we are open for business,” he added.

Redbox Instant currently offers its subscribers access to 4,600 subscription titles and four Redbox DVD rentals for $8 a month. Customers can also digitally rent or buy around 4,000 movies for a fee to augment their subscriptions with newer fare. Strickland told me that the service saw interest from “hundreds of thousands” of consumers who signed up to join the closed beta test. Tens of thousands not only joined for a free trial, but stayed around to become paying customers after their trial period ended.

So who are those Redbox Instant customers? Strickland said that the beta test confirmed the company’s belief that it was primarily catering to people who still value physical rentals. “It’s a disc plus offering,” he said, with streaming supplementing DVD rentals. That’s also reflected in the type of content the company is making available for streaming. “It clearly starts with movies,” said Strickland, adding that the focus might evolve over time.

That approach is very different from Netflix, which also started out with a movie-focused DVD service, but now invests heavily in TV content. Does that mean Netflix and Redbox are going to be complementary, as opposed to arch-enemies? My conversation with Strickland left me with the impression that he would be okay with that — as long as people are paying for his company’s service as well.

“We think that the over-the-top space will evolve very similarly to the cable and network space,” he said. Meaning: You might get your content from more than one streaming provider in the future, just like you get it from more than one cable network.

Of course, a large part of the rise of cable networks like HBO or even AMC has been the production of original content, something that has been an increasing focus of Netflix and Hulu as well. CAA agent Peter Micelli speculated a few days ago that Redbox Instant may venture into original content as well. Strickland called this kind of talk “really premature,” explaining that Redbox Instant doesn’t even have enough insights into what kind of exclusive content its subscribers could be interested in yet. But he added: “From an industry perspective, there is a clear force in that direction.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

How Redbox Instant is gamifying its beta test

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:29:00 +0000

Redbox Instant by Verizon is doing something interesting to get more feedback on its invite-only beta test: The Netflix competitor recently launched a separate website dubbed Redhead Nation that invites Redbox Instant users to take part in games and in return win prizes ranging from a Redbox rental to an Xbox. Some questions are about direct product feedback while others hint at more ambitious crowdsourcing plans.

Redbox Instant Chief marketing Officer Amy Gibby told me during a phone call Wednesday that the goal of the new site was to learn from beta testers. “We can really learn a lot from them,” she said, adding that there are already 2,000 people signed up for Redhead Nation.

One part of Redhead Nation is a daily question about some of the service’s features. Rate how the Redbox Instant dashboard works for you, and you’ll receive 100 points. Add a request for additional features, and Redbox Instant rewards you with another 50 points. Get 500 points, and you’ll be entered into a sweepstakes to win an Xbox and other prizes. And of course, there’s also a leaderboard, showing that some subscribers have already earned more than 4000 points.

Giving users rewards to answer questions about the service is smart, because it increases the likelihood that the company will actually get a good amount of feedback. But Redhead Nation seems to lay the foundation to go much further:

This is smart: Redbox Instant asks its users to tag its movies.

The site also solicits users to take part in small games and quizzes. Some of these just try to amuse the movie buff crowd, but others could actually prove to be very helpful for the site going forward. In particular, Redhead Nation asks users to add tags to movie titles offered through the service. This could be used to beef up Redbox’s metadata library, telling the service what kind of keywords its subscribers associate with some of its titles, and in turn helping to strengthen its discovery skills. Using tags in this way is “definitely a consideration,” said Gibby, adding that a part of the Redhead Nation project was to test these kinds of theories.

Established competitor Netflix has put a lot of effort into algorithmic recommendations, suggesting new titles based on subscribers rating titles they’ve seen, as well as on a whole bunch of additional data it collects when users interact with the service. A bigger focus on tagging and more active, natural-language responses from its users seems like an interesting way for Redbox Instant to counter that algorithmic approach.

The current Redhead Nation sweepstakes concludes at the end of January. Gibby said that the company hasn’t decided yet whether it will run further sweepstakes. However, it could make a lot of sense for the company to keep this going in some form or another and keep users playing to improve the company’s service.

Redbox Instant launched its private beta test at the end of December. The company is offering subscribers a Netflix-like subscription that comes with four monthly coupons for Redbox DVD rentals.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Redbox Instant CEO: Netflix was wrong to sideline DVDs

Janko Roettgers — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 19:31:39 +0000

A digital media service – that also offers DVDs? In 2013? “We are a bit of a throwback,” admitted Redbox Instant by Verizon CEO Shawn Strickland at a small press event in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Common wisdom in the industry is that consumers are moving towards streaming and that DVDs are a thing of the past, but Strickland and his team believe that physical media can actually be part of a viable offering for some time to come.

Redbox Instant, which started its private beta test last month, offers consumers DVD coupons as part of their subscription package, and Strickland said that the format helps to provide a unique offering with newly-released titles that other services don’t have. “That’s the freshest way to get the content,” he said about DVDs.

Of course, Netflix used to provide its customers with a similar offering. The company provided customers with DVD rentals as well as online streaming for $8 a month – until Netflix decided to split the offering into two separate subscription plans in July of 2011.

Netflix has since put most of its energy towards building out the streaming business, and seen the number of its DVD subscribers continuously decline. But Strickland argued that this was the wrong move. “There was a choice forced on the consumer,” he told me.

Redbox Instant now wants to wean some of those consumers off their Netflix subscription – and the company is particularly looking to win over folks who complement their Netflix plan with Redbox rentals. Strickland said Wednesday that between 30 and 50 percent of all Redbox users already subscribe to an over-the-top streaming service.

Redbox Instant is currently in private beta, and wants to open up before the end of the first quarter. To be ready for that, the company is ramping up its device support. Beta testers already have access to iOS and Android apps as well as apps for LG and Samsung smart TVs and connected Blu-ray players. This week, it announced a partnership with Vizio to bring Redbox Instant to Google TV devices.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Redbox Instant by Verizon officially launches beta test (exclusive video inside)

Janko Roettgers — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:35:33 +0000

Redbox Instant by Verizon, the Netflix competitor with the name we still can’t quite get used to, officially launched its private beta test Wednesday. The site’s splash page is touting an $8-per-month subscription, which includes four DVD credits redeemable at Redbox kiosks. Android and iOS apps have also popped up on the iTunes store and Google Play .

GigaOM first reported many of the key details about Redbox Instant’s streaming service last month, when we were able to gather key information from the service’s help page. Pretty much all of that information turned out to be correct, save for two minor details: We predicted that Redbox Instant would launch its beta test on December 17, but it looks as if the service didn’t quite make that deadline. Also, a previously mentioned Xbox app hasn’t actually launched yet.

Right now, the service is only available on Android, iOS, Windows, OS X and select Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players. A Twitter account for the service also mentioned Wednesday that support for Google TV is on the way. The same account also mentioned that a plan including Blu-ray rentals would be available “for an extra buck.” Not mentioned Wednesday, but apparently still available as well, is a streaming-only plan for $6 a month.

Speaking of not mentioned: Redbox Instant published a somewhat obnoxious promo video for its service, which I don’t want to republish here. Instead, I give you this video demonstrating how the service looks like on a PC or Mac that has previously only been made available to beta testers:

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Redbox wants to start streaming before Santa comes

Janko Roettgers — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:53:05 +0000

The Redbox Instant by Verizon joint venture wants to have its Netflix competitor up and running in time for the holidays, according to a Bloomberg report. A Verizon exec told the news agency that the service is currently being tested by 500 of its employees, and that there is going to be a short public beta test before it finally launches between late November and mid-December.

The Bloomberg story also revealed a few more interesting details about the joint venture’s business model. Apparently, Redbox and Verizon are going to pay rights holders per subscriber. That’s different from Netflix, which regularly spends many millions of dollars to license titles for a set amount of time.

Paying per subscriber will minimize the the startup costs of the new venture, but it also means that customers likely will have fewer content options. Netflix is now regularly betting big on exclusive deals, and Redbox Instant by Verizon won’t be able to compete in these negotiations.

The service apparently wants to make up for this by offering access to newer titles through other means: Subscribers will be able to pick up a limited number of disks at any Redbox kiosk as part of their subscription plan, and the company is also going to offer pay-per-view VOD through its website. That means its online offering will more closely resemble Amazon’s video service, which offers both unlimited streaming of select titles as well as pay per view rentals and sales for newer movies and TV show episodes.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Redbox Instant: No TV shows, way fewer movies

Janko Roettgers — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:36:26 +0000

Coinstar CEO Paul Davis has revealed a few more details about the video subscription service that his company’s Redbox unit is going to launch together with Verizon later this year, and it sounds… well, eclectic. The service, which is officially called Redbox Instant by Verizon, will focus on quality over quantity, Davis told Fast Company this week, which quotes him saying:

“Do you really need 100,000 titles? I mean, really?”

Davis said that he doesn’t want to compete with Netflix on catalog size, but rather have an HBO Go-like approach with fewer titles that matter more. Except you probably won’t see many TV shows on Redbox Instant either, as Davis hinted at movies being the core focus.

Of course Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been comparing his own company to HBO for a long time, and used that analogy to justify massive investments into original and exclusive content. Coinstar quickly realized that it couldn’t match those investments on its own, which is why the company partnered with Verizon, Davis said.

Redbox Instant by Verizon is currently doing an invite-only alpha test, and is scheduled to launch before the end of the year. Pricing and possible tie-ins with Redbox DVD rentals are still unannounced.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.