According to Market Playground, "It was only a matter of time. In a press release on Thursday, September 23rd, Blockbuster Inc. (PK: BLOKA, BLOCKB) filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in an effort to recapitalize its balance sheet and put the Company in a stronger financial position as it continues to pursue its strategic plan and transform its business model.”Duh. Ask any American kid what Blockbuster is and he'll tell you that's where mom hangs out to get bad movies. Ask an Asian kid and you'll get a blank stare. "So you go there and pay money and they give you a movie, but you have to bring it back?" Right. Germany has automats to handle this function. I laugh, as I torrent my next blockbuster.
I recall somewhere in the mid 90s, being asked to pitch the Blockbuster business at the Leo Burnett Company in Chicago. Having also been working on the Nintendo business, I was keenly aware of what the online gaming market was becoming and how video game consoles, even at that time, had a land-line phone jack already built in, ready for the kids to connect. "Isn't this all going online?", I naively asked at a prep meeting, having gone through reams of insignificant data stating that the brick and mortar concept had at least another 20 years in it.
Hmm. Time flies. Seems as if we're already there. My old question was answered by a smarter-than-me account executive who told me that Blockbuster had determined that limited bandwidth would hamper online delivery for quite sometime and there was no need to worry about that. Until now, I guess. So hmm again. Sears created the catalogue, but lost the online business to Amazon. Sony created the Walkman but lost the personal music player market to Apple. And now Blockbuster has lost the home video market to Netflix and torrents. So what's the message here? The medium is the message here. The medium. Marshall McLuhan told us that. Too many years ago.