Blockbuster, the video-rental chain plagued by debt and unprofitable stores, is placing a bet on a mobile future.
On Wednesday, the company released an application that allows users to watch movies on a mobile phone.
The application will make the Blockbuster’s digital catalog of roughly 10,000 film titles available for rent or purchase on the move. Rental prices start at $1.99, with newer releases like “The Hurt Locker” typically costing $3.99 to watch over a 24-hour period. Purchase prices will be comparable to prices in stores, the company said.
“There are pieces of the business that are going to change, but we are bringing the same experiences to customers and our users through partnerships with studios and mobile companies,” said Scott Levine, vice president of digital for the company, in an interview.
Currently, the app is available only for T-Mobile’s newest smartphone, the HTC HD2, which runs on Microsoft’s Window Mobile 6.5 operating system. Eventually, the company said, it hopes to extend its reach to Android smartphones.
Although the company released an Apple iPhone application to allow Blockbuster users to find video stores nearby and manage their online rental queues, this is the rental chain’s first foray into playing movies on a mobile device.
Rentals can be streamed over T-Mobile’s 3G network, the company said. But users who want to purchase a movie will have to be on a Wi-Fi network to complete the download to minimize strain on the network, Mr. Levin said.
In addition, Mr. Levin said, consumers who purchase movies through the application will be able to also watch them on compatible home theater set-ups.
“Consumers get caught up worrying about D.R.M. and formats,” he said. “What we’re building will work across devices.
Of course, Blockbuster’s initiative would have more effect if it were to debut on a platform with a broader user base, like the iPhone. Blockbuster’s nemesis, Netflix, whose popular DVD mail rental service has gutted the company’s core business, is seriously considering offering an iPhone app.
“We’ll do whatever we can to support that platform,” Mr. Levin said. But the iPhone is “a little challenging,” he said, citing the heavy bandwidth demands the phone places on AT&T’s wireless network.
“We have to think about how to make 3G work with the carriers,” he said. “Above all, we want it to be a good experience for users.”
In the meantime, he said he’s not worried about the competition on the mobile front. The company recently renewed an agreement with Warner Bros. to allow the company to offer the studio’s new releases about a month earlier than Netflix and Redbox.
“There’s a lot of great stuff going on out here, streaming back catalog titles like Netflix is going to do,” he said. “But this is a new-releases game. We’re talking the hot titles.”