The good ship Blockbuster is continuing to take on water, with one analyst writing that he expects the one-time uber DVD rental service to continue losing customers at an unprecedented rate as Netflix, and even start-up RedBox, home of the $1 rental, continue to pick away at its ever-shrinking carcass.
Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote, "Blockbuster is losing customers to Netflix and RedBox at an unprecedented rate, driving continued upside to Netflix's financial performance."
He also dismissed Blockbuster's day-and-date coup with several studios, saying it "had similar arrangements in place throughout its decline."
On a brighter note, with Netflix poised to release its quarterly earnings report (after market close Wednesday), Pachter says he expects the DVD-by-mail (and increasingly by streaming) company to add 200,000 subscribers from the PlayStation3, bringing its subscriber numbers up to as much as 13.8 million, and would likely finish the year with more than 16.3 million clients.
For more:
- see this Home Media article
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