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Tech Friday, March 15th 2013 at 10:40 am

Redbox Instant Launches, Hopes There’s Room in Your Life for Another Video Service

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Redbox and Verizon have teamed up to take on the likes of Netflix with their new Redbox Instant streaming partnership which launched publicly today. This is a big move for Redbox, but with so many streaming sites already out there, is there even room for a new player? Verizon and Redbox seem to think so, and they’ll give you a free month to think it over. I’m not convinced.

As someone who already subscribes to both Hulu Plus and Netflix, I’m not sure I have room in my life for a third streaming service. [There's also Amazon Prime, but that's neither here nor there. - Ed] The service will cost $8/month, and to try amd win over undecided streamers like myself, part of the launch of the new service is to offer a free month of not only streaming online content, but also getting physical DVDs from a Redbox kiosk.

The service itself will feature unlimited streaming and DVD rentals, but the trial limits you to four DVD credits. These are good for one DVD for one night, and get used up if you forget to return the disc. That means you can pretty easily blow all your rental DVD credits by not bringing back a disc for a few days, but I’m not too worried about it.

I rarely watch things off DVDs anymore unless I’m putting on an old episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, so that’s not very much of a draw for me personally. Redbox is banking on people wanting to get the newest releases in their hands before waiting for them to be available online, and there could definitely be something to that.

The selection of streaming titles seems pretty familiar since it’s made up of a lot of movies already on Netflix or Hulu, and for some reason when I mouse over most of the titles I’m getting this message:

I’m willing to chalk this up to day-one launch jitters in the site, but if there’s some problem limiting the streaming content right out of the gate then that might not bode well Redbox’s chances online.

Poking around the Redbox Instant site I noticed a section for games, and I think that’s what could be a big winner for them. Unfortunately, I can’t find anything on the site about whether games are included. Although it does specifically mention that for an extra $1/month the service will also include unlimited Blu-ray rentals, so maybe games would cost another dollar as well?

I’d happily pay $10/month to be able to switch out rented games at a Redbox, but would I pay $8/month to stream movies I can already get elsewhere? I’m still not sure, but I just signed up for the free trial, so we’ll know in a few weeks.

(via Redbox Instant by Verizon)

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  • legowife

    I have been trying out Redbox Instant for 2 months (mostly because I
    forgot to cancel it after my trial expired), and unfortunately, so far
    I’m not impressed. First, their online selection blows — it’s /nothing/
    like their kiosk selection and doesn’t even have the benefit of older
    blockbuster titles that are no longer in the kiosks. I would guess that
    the selection will improve over time, but if they really want to hook
    users, they are going to have to put up something better. Second, their
    interface — at least the app for my smart tv — really sucks too. They
    mix in titles for their kiosks and purchasable titles with their
    streaming titles. Maybe they think that’s convenient, but it isn’t. You
    can filter of course, but the filter is very buggy and doesn’t persist.
    In any case, the default for a streaming service should not be to show
    you more titles that aren’t available for streaming than are. Third, if
    you are a verizon user who has jailbroken their phone, good luck using
    the app. You can’t because it’s one of those annoying verizon branded
    and coded apps. I can download and install it, but when I try to use it
    all I get is an error message along those lines.

    One thing that might make up for its issues is the fact that you get 4
    DVD rental credits each month to use at the kiosk. That is DVD only,
    not blu-ray. And you can’t use the credits toward the blu-ray price
    either. So that’s another thing that needs fixing. I’d gladly use 2 of
    my 4 credits for blu-ray than 1 for DVD.

    Overall though, the thing that will make me leave the service if the
    situation doesn’t improve is the selection. There are very few things on
    redbox that I want to see (and that’s a small number) that I can’t
    already get on Netflix or Hulu.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the service review.