Verizon Teams Up with Redbox to Deliver Video Streaming Service Redbox Instant
posted Sunday Oct 28, 2012 by Nicholas DiMeo
Verizon is trying something new this quarter; they are working with Redbox to launch a streaming and DVD rental subscription service, which is currently in its beta phase. Verizon's President of Consumer and Mass Business, Robert Mudge, said in a keynote this week that the service should be up and running publicly by the end of the year.
We will be in the market in the fourth quarter. Quite frankly, this has been a heavy lift... (We will be) the provider than can give the consumer any of those video choices at a reasonable price.
The service will be called Redbox Instant and will be a separate service that customers can pay monthly for that is outside of its FiOS offerings and environment. This means that those interested in the US can have any broadband connection from any ISP and still be able to sign up, putting Redbox Instant right in-line to compete with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. Mudge added in his keynote that this move is to help Verizon's overall goal of a "borderless lifestyle" that allows a Verizon customer to access everything they want on as many devices as possible, home or on the go, with a wired or wireless connection.
Mudge then said that Verizon conducted a new consumer research study, called the FiOS Innovation Index, and found that 39 percent of US adults who buy tech gadgets are already considered to be living this borderless lifestyle. This is important because 48 percent of those people make $75,000 a year, with just over half of them having graduated college, which means these are people that will spend money.
After all is said and done though, is another video streaming service going to gain momentum so late into the game? Amazon Prime is even struggling to remain relevant, even after some big improvements that make it superior to Netflix in certain areas. Can Redbox Instant be a service that will bring together the best of all the other services and squash the competition? I doubt it, but the service is still in beta and not many have seen what it can really do. As soon as we get our hands on it, we'll let you know if it can compete.