Dish Set To Launch Blockbuster Video Streaming Service Over Its Network

Online, October 20, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Dish Network Corp., which purchased Blockbuster video rental chain in April, is set to launch a video streaming service utilizing the Blockbuster brand name. The company will stream video content to its customers over its Dish Network satellite network.

The Blockbuster chain was purchased by Dish Network for $320 million after the video store chain declared bankruptcy in September 2010. The new Blockbuster video streaming service is expected to present a challenge to the highly successful Netflix video streaming service, which has dominated the market in Internet movie and television streaming.

Dish Network is holding a press conference where it's widely anticipated that the company will make a formal announcement of the launch of its Blockbuster branded streaming service. Today's press conference is titled, "A Stream Come True", and takes place in San Francisco.

"We have expanded the dedicated team on the Blockbuster digital side and have invested resources in enhancing the digital platform, which I think is key to us in the long term," Thomas Cullen, executive vice president of corporate development for Dish Network said.

Netflix increased the price of its rent-by-mail DVD service in July, and as many as 1 million of Netflix's 25 million subscribers have dropped the service since then. Blockbuster once maintained more than 9,000 locations at the peak of its success in the early part of the last decade. When Blockbuster sold its operation to Dish in early spring of 2011, competition from cheaper, more convenient video sources such as Netflix and Hulu had leveled the chain to fewer than 3,000 locations.

Netflix announced Monday it would be spinning off its physical DVD rental business under a new 'Qwikster' brand, opting to keep its original name attached only to its Web-based offerings.

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