Redbox buys two kiosk technology patents
No. 1 kiosk-based DVD rental company, Redbox says its purchase of two technology patents will protect its business model going forward.
One patent, called “Automated Merchandise Dispensing and Retrieval System,” is for a system that allows consumers to rent DVDs from any of its 4,800 kiosks and return it to another one. A second patent, called “Article Dispensing System,” is for a system that allows Redbox’s field team to restock kiosks more efficiently by inserting a pre-packed unit each week.
Redbox VP of marketing Gary Lancina said the company implemented the patents on June 26 and June 28.
“These new patents protect Redbox’s technology and reinforce our leadership position in the DVD rental industry and growing contributions to automated retail,” CEO Greg Kaplan said.
Redbox is the largest kiosk-based rental operator and the fourth largest among all home video rental companies, behind Blockbuster, Netflix and Movie Gallery.
Each automated kiosk offers 500 DVDs of new releases for $1 each per night, which can be paid with a credit card or debit card. If a movie is not returned in 25 days, the credit card is charged $25 and the renter becomes the owner.
Jointly owned by McDonald’s Corp. subsidiary Coinstar, the automated change counter, Redbox has kiosks in grocery stores, McDonald’s restaurants and other retailers.
It’s nearest rival, TNR Corp., which operates MovieCube kiosks, counts about 2,000 kiosks machines in various grocery outlets. DVDPlay has more than 1,000 machines in the U.S. and Canada.
Redbox said this summer it rented 11 million movies between June 2006 and June 2007.
Trade publication Self-Service World Magazine also reported this month that Redbox finished first in a readers survey of self-service deployments.
“Redbox is firing on all cylinders,” Rufus Connell, research director for information technology at Frost & Sullivan, told the magazine. “They have good hardware and software, good marketing and good partnerships for their deployment locations.”
