Blockbuster Q1 2006 Results

Video Business is reporting that Blockbuster lost only $1.9 million in Q1, vs. $57.5 million a year ago ("Blockbuster Narrows Q1 Loss"). Blockbuster Online ended the quarter with 1.3 million subscribers, and promised to promote the service more in the second half of the year.

The "no more late fees" program may actually be working:

Antioco said that comparisons with its franchisees that haven’t implemented the no late fees policy show the strategy is now paying off in terms of revenue. Since late fees were eliminated, the corporate stores have outperformed the franchisees in active member numbers, he said, showing that the corporate stores are doing a better job of retaining customers.

Blockbuster Q1 2006 results press release.

Comments

[gir]

Good! I wish more companies would take this to heart. Seems like that last 20 years have been the era of fee income - their are 'additional' fees for EVERYTHING (even stuff that you KNOW costs less than the alternative, like ATM fees, or electronic filing of tax returns).

[NetflixShill]

I don't use ATMs, because of fee. If they want to charge me more money to use the machine instead of going in the bank, I'll go in the bank. It's bad enough they offer you half a percent interest (or less), but to bill you for taking your money out a machine is just ridiculous. Late fees aren't really the same thing, though, gir. I think companies need due dates and late fees, esp on titles where they don't have enough copies to meet demand (or they're out of print). The alternative is waiting forever, while some jerk keeps the disc out for months.

I've been waiting for some discs on Nicheflix like 6-7 months. They deal in obscure titles that often cost a lot to purchase, so they may not have a lot of copies. But they let people keep them forever, if they're paying dues. That's BS. If other people are waiting, the discs should be due in 1-2 weeks. If nobody else has requested a title, or they have other copies, they should auto-renew it every day. But if someone else wants it, it should be due in 1-2 weeks (at most).