Blockbuster Dumps Movielink Tech After A Few Months; Goes With Cinemanow Instead
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
Blockbuster's so-called plans have been changing in real time these days, it seems, as the world changes in real time as well: We pointed out earlier yesterday about Blockbuster's continuing vaporware plans for online and mobile video. What was lost in the shuffle a bit was the fact that the rental chain has dropped the technology behind Movielink, the online video service is bought in 2007 for a firesale price of mere $6.6 million (after $148 million was invested in it over the years), and will now go with one time rival Cinemanow's technology for its new online movie service to be launched in Q2 this year. It had been integrating the Movielink service with Blockbuster.com for a few months now, but after testing it out for a few month in closed beta, it is now dumping the tech part, even though the content deals remain in place, as Variety points out.
Cinemanow itself was bought for an even more firesale price of $3 million in November by Sonic Solutions, the digital media software company.
This comes after BB recently changed its mind on a set top box as well, and planned to launch it during the holiday season, and then abandoned that too.
By Rafat Ali