Whether or not Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) plans to offer a more competitive Blockbuster online video play down the road still isn't clear, but the satellite TV company is starting to make some moves to at least make it more competitive in the day-to-day DVD rental business.
The satellite TV company announced it would shelve Blockbuster's $4.99 multi-day movie rental fee in favor of a $2.99 single-day rental, with options to rent titles for additional days at 99 cents a day.
The move is seen as an effort to better align Blockbuster's rental business with other options already on the market, like Redbox, which charges 99 cents a day for rentals from its multitude of free-standing kiosks.
The $2.99 first-day fee allows it to rent new releases on the same day they go on sale.
Dish paid $320 million for Blockbuster in April, it and has been slow to reveal what it has planned for the former segment leader and slow to close many of the 1,700 retail outlets it acquired in the deal. Conventional wisdom has the satellite TV company launching a Netflix-like offering soon.
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