Zip Delays Online Streaming
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.
Google Merges Services
Google has merged its Android application, eBook, film rental and cloud services into one service, entitled Google Play.
Canadians with Gmail accounts are able to access Android applications and a limited selection of films and books at the moment. But the online entertainment hub is expected to expand shortly.
The music service on Google Play, which enables users to store up to 20,000 songs on a cloud service that can be accessed by any Android device, is only available to Americans.
Rogers Video To Close 40% of Stores
Rogers Video will be closing 63 of their 156 Canadian stores by the end of January, according to the Toronto Star.
The company had reported a 46% reduction in revenue in October, having obtained $60 million in profits in the first three quarters of 2011 instead of $111 million in 2011. (Q3 2011).
Rogers had closed 20 video stores in 2010 and is currently revamping their stores in response to the market, to concentrate on smartphone and tablet sales. They had also closed their direct mail rental service, Rogers Video Direct, this month.
Rogers Video Direct Closes
Rogers Video Direct has closed and the mail rental service’s customers have been re-directed to Zip.ca.
The Rogers Video Direct site was operated by Zip anyway so there are only a few minor changes to the service.
CRTC Will Not Regulate Online Film Rentals
The CRTC will not regulate online film rental companies and broadcasters.
These online broadcaster will not be forced to subsidize Canadian TV content, the CRTC having found no evidence that their activities hurt conventional broadcasters.
Zip To Expand Movie Rental Kiosks
Online movie rental retailer Zip.ca will partner with Metro Inc. to bring their movie rental kiosks to over 800 Metro grocery stores though-out Canada.
These red kiosks, which rented DVDs for $1 and blu-ray disc for $2, were successfully tested in Ottawa and Montreal Metro stores. And the company is hoping to gain more customers from Blockbuster Canada‘s extensive membership.
Zip is also currently offering internet movie rentals on Samsung brand devices.