At last Blockbuster is awakening to the power of Blu-ray. They have announced their intention of dramatically increasing the number of Blu-ray titles on their shelves. It is about time!! I am not sure about you, but renting a Blu-ray on a Blockbuster store is a mission. They have only one movie of each and still don’t have many available titles. Then you might think, “OK, let’s try going online” and no, not any easier because they have very long wait periods on the titles you want! Blockbuster announced it will almost triple the number of stores that carry Blu-ray discs and will add Blu-ray display kiosks to almost all of its U.S. and Canada company-owned stores in an effort to boost revenue from high-definition disc rentals. Studios, who are footing the bill on the kiosks, began adding them to about 1,000 Blockbuster stores in February as part of a broad-based marketing effort to capitalize on Toshiba’s decision that month to discontinue its competing HD DVD format. Sony began working with retailers such as Best Buy to offer discounts to customers who bought both HDTVs and either Blu-ray discs or PlayStation 3 game titles, while Sony Pictures Home Entertainment said it would release more than 100 Blu-ray titles this year, up 54% from 2007. “We believe Blockbuster is perfectly positioned to drive consumer adoption of this next-generation DVD format and to become the customer’s headquarters when it comes to renting or buying Blu-ray movies,” said David Podeschi, senior VP of merchandising, distribution and logistics at Blockbuster. Hopefully with this new initiative we will be able to rent the movies we want whenever we want.

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