As the movie rental industry has moved to digital downloads, once dominant video rental chain Blockbuster is closing its additional 300 stores it has throughout the country, its current owner DISH said in a press release Wednesday.
"This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment," Joseph Clayton dish chief executive officer Joseph Clayton said in a statement. "We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings."
The changes will come in December when Blockbuster stops its DVD mail service, and January when its stores close up shop for good.
Some have already started however as Blockbuster slims down the 1,700 locations Dish bought from it during the company's bankruptcy.
Dish Network bought Blockbuster who rescued it from bankruptcy in April 2011 Bloomberg reported, and according to Huffington Post also obtained company assets in the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia in the last 18 months.
Blockbuster operated 9,000 locations, prior to this in 2004 when entertainment company Viacom held its rights until online streaming video service Netflix took over the industry Bloomberg reported.
Customers will still be able to watch movies through Blockbuster's streaming service, Blockbuster On Demand.
This has several movies available for purchase and viewing on personal computers, tablet computers, smartphones, slingbox, roku, and certain Samsung televisions, and Blu-ray players.
There is also the Blockbuster Home service, which provides more than 15 movie channels like Starz, Cinema, EPIX, Sony Movie Channel, and the Hallmark Movie Channel.
This also includes more than 20,000 movies and TV shows, which consumers can view on televisions, computers, and iPad tablet computers.
Consumers can also download the Blockbuster Home App to televisions with a DISH Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR set-top box Huffington Post reported.
