It appears there is a strong market in regards to film rentals in Canada. So much so that it appears that Zip.ca might be prioritizing their kiosks over online streaming.
In an article in the Ottawa Business Journal printed on March 13th, Rob Hall, the founder of Zip.ca, stated that he had delayed his company’s plans to offer rentals via streaming beyond this year, favouring the further expansion of kiosks.
Zip.ca‘s red coloured kiosks are currently expanding through Metro/Food Basic grocery stores in Ontario and offer rentals at $1 per older release per day and $2 per new release per day.
The kiosks were test marketed in the Ottawa area and Nova Scotia, the latter in Sobeys grocery stores, with great success. And sales remain strong with former Blockbuster Canada customers and people who use their internet sparingly.
In Canada it is still rather expensive to stream films online because of internet usage capping so many Canadians will continue to rent DVDs and Blu-Ray discs for years to come.
High Definition films in 720p are generally over 3 gigabytes in size while standard definition films are over 1.5 gigabytes in size. And many Canadians have had their internet usage capped dramatically recently.
Having rented from them in the past, I’m hoping to have one of their kiosks in my neighbourhood soon.
I’ve just encountered drawbacks in regards to rentals via their kiosks.
At an atypical rental store I have a set time to return a film, usually closing by the next day. And on occasion there are stores where the return is due at 6pm or 7pm.
Unfortunately, the kiosks operate on a 24 hour system meaning that if you rent it at 2 pm in the afternoon and return it at 3pm the following day, you’re going to be charged an extra day.
Then there’s a problem in regards to the closing time of the store in which the kiosk is located.
This isn’t a problem for Metro stores, which stay open late. But there is an issue in regards to Food Basic stores, some of which close quite early on Sundays – At 6 pm.
So if you rent a DVD or Blu-Ray disc from 6 to 9 pm on Saturday night, you will not have 24 hours to view the film, unless you’re able to return them at a nearby Metro based kiosk.
I’m sure this will be less of an issue when the kiosks expand but just though I’d mention these so you can avoid the extra fees I had to pay for.