Posted Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 01:10 PM PST by Mike Attebery
They're sticking it to the man! Unfortunately, the man is you. On the plus side, they’re getting Blu-rays
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Warner Brothers or Redbox. The dollar-a-day rental service has been battling some pretty steep odds in its attempt to stock movies from all companies, many of which aren’t happy with the $1 rental fees.
Whether the deal that Redbox made with Warner on Tuesday counts as good news or bad news depends entirely on whether you rent new releases or not.
On the plus side for consumers, Redbox is getting Warner Brothers Blu-ray discs. They’ll be testing in certain markets first, before switching to wide distribution, but Blu-ray will be coming.
Of course, there is a downside. Redbox has given in to Warner Brothers' on one big point. Though you’ll be able to get Warner Bros DVDs and Blu-rays from Redbox kiosks, you’ll have to wait four weeks to get them.
The twenty-eight day window will hit in March with the release of 'The Blind Side' (We thought they'd start with Sandra Bullock's '28 Days,' but no dice!). From that point on, Redbox will get Warner Bros films almost a month after their DVD release, but at a significant discount. Additionally, Redbox has agreed to destroy Warner content after it’s taken out of the machines, so don’t expect to see used discs cropping up.
Source: Redbox Press Room
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