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4 Things Redbox’s Streaming Service Needs To Beat Netflix and Amazon

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Redbox and Verizon are hooking up to create a streaming media service to compete with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and the like. The partnership, announced today, is not well detailed to keep rivals from knowing their plans ahead of time and moving swiftly to cut them off.

According to Fast Company the partners will offer a subscription service and some tie in or leveraging of Redbox’s existing kiosk service, which allows for $1/day DVD rentals and are usually found in Walmart stores.

This market is starting to get cramped, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a company to rise up and defeat all challengers. In order to do that Redbox will need these four things — I doubt all of them are possible.

Redbox and Verizon Join Forces

1. Offer more television episodes and put them up fast

The weakest link in many streaming services is the ability to bring the TV shows customers want to them in a timely manner. The day after broadcast is a reasonable amount of time to wait (not 8 days), but if someone promised that streaming would begin 3 hours after broadcast there would be an explosion of joy.

Also, a service that offers more TV episodes than is currently on offer will get a lot of attention. Don’t just focus on the big four networks. The audience wants cable shows day after broadcast, too. More than what any of the streaming services offer at present.

Drag premium channels to the party. People will pay to stream Dexter, Boardwalk Empire, Homeland and the like. Especially if they don’t have cable.

2. Get access to new movies faster

People want to begin streaming movies as soon as they’re available on DVD. They may even pay a heftier subscription fee if they can do so before said movies are out on DVD.

Regardless, don’t make people wait months and months or years for a movie to show up on your service.

3. Allow customers to create video playlists

It would be awesome if I could arrange all of my evening’s streaming into one continuous playlist so I could truly lean back and not have to touch the remote until everything I want to watch is complete.

This would be especially useful for times when I just want to watch all the new episodes of my favorite shows at the end of the week. Instead of watching one, backing out to the main menu, finding the next, watching that, then repeating the process, a good streaming service should offer me the ability to add a bunch of videos to a list that automatically moves through each. A really good service would auto-create a playlist for me of new eps from shows i have an my subscription queue.

Plus, it would give users the option to play through a list of episodes in order when watching just one show.

4. Offer streaming on as many existing devices as possible from launch.

The companies clearly stated that customers of this service would be able to enjoy media “whenever they choose, using the media and devices they prefer.” A good start. This needs to be more than empty words. When launched, this device should work on any smartphone or tablet up to 2 years old in addition to existing set top boxes, gaming consoles, and all computers, including those running Linux.

Launching on just a few devices and updating compatibility in increments is bunk (Netflix!) and restricting the service to just one mobile device is even more bunk (Amazon!). Don’t make the same mistakes.

Redbox and Verizon have the opportunity to create a service that will change the video streaming landscape. Sadly, I suspect that all they’re aiming to do is clone what’s out there. If not, let’s hope they take some of this into consideration.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Sam

    02/06/2012 at 10:12 am

    I would like them to support the TiVo, Western Digital Live Hub, and any streaming device
    which can buffer the stream to hard disk.  One of the most annoying things is the slow
    downloading of streams, and the interruption of viewing for the buffering.  Additionally, if
    background downloading could occur, then one could schedule shows to watch in advance,
    even over the Internet, then come home to a night’s worth of programming ready for viewing.

  2. Guest

    02/07/2012 at 7:22 am

    Amen to Linux support!

  3. scgarris

    02/09/2012 at 4:23 pm

    User interface matters though, too. Hulu is overdone and detracts from the experience on limited bandwidth connections, making users slog through the slow-loading environment. Amazon Prime annoyingly doesn’t group different seasons of the same TV shows together the way Netflix does. And none of the big three services does a reasonable job of addressing multi-user households–that’s a critical missing piece that will hamper activity-sharing across social networks.

  4. Fivehuniddollas

    02/17/2012 at 4:43 pm

    While we’re being super demanding, I’d like it to make me pancakes and tuck me in at night.

  5. sammyspade

    02/27/2012 at 7:58 pm

    I would change “Get access to new movies faster” to “Get access to movies – ever!”  There is so much stuff I’d like to watch that is simply never available for streaming on Netflix.  Without a better streaming selection, Netflix is a dead man walking.

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