blockbuster.jpgIt makes complete sense to me that Blockbuster would want to get into the DVD kiosk business. The chain is apparently doing just that, testing a handful of kiosks in Papa John’s pizza places and Dollar Store locations in Kentucky. The DVD rentals cost just $1, the same price other kiosk operators charge, and discs can be returned to any Blockbuster kiosk, not just the one the movie was rented from.

Blockbuster right now is looking for ways to increase revenue and cut costs. The $1 price point comes not only from the competition but from the fact that kiosks require little in the way of overhead. You’re paying more or less just for the movie and not for the store lighting, employee wages and floorspace rental.

The next logical step, of course, is kiosks that are connected to a high-speed central server that allow you to burn any movie on demand. That takes the concept from one that can only supply the top couple hundred titles (no room for the Long Tail when space is a premium) to one that could satisfy just about anyone’s impulse purchase desires.

I know some testing along these lines has been done by others but Blockbuster, despite all its problems, has the name recognition to take that ball and run with it.