Who didn’t see this coming?
When it comes to streaming films and television shows, Netflix is leading the charge with the large majority of the market share. While Amazon‘s “Amazon Instant Video” service has beefed up it’s worth by attaining full seasons of several HBO titles and it’s own original titles, as well as Hulu planting a firm flag, it seems Redbox has fallen short.
While Redbox will continue to have kiosks nationwide, it will shutdown its “Redbox Instant” streaming service tomorrow (October 7) at noon PST. This decision comes only a year and a half after its inception, with the service’s poor performance being the culprit. Instant was created to be a direct contender against Netflix, offering instant streaming and four DVDs per month for a price less than Netflix’s. However, CEO J. Scott Di Valerio reported back in August that he was “not pleased” with the amount of subscribers the Verizon powered service had accumulated, and thus the reason for pulling the reason for pulling it two months later.
Users of the Redbox Instant (if there are any) can will receive information about refunds by email and on the company’s website on October 10.
Khari Clarke preferred Netflix better anyway. Reach out to him on Twitter (@KINGCLARKEIII).