NCR Corp To Place DVD Kiosks At Nearly 500 Kwik Trip Stores
April 16 2010 - 04:38PM
Dow Jones News
NCR Corp. (NCR) has won a contract to place its DVD rental
kiosks in outlets of Kwik Trip Inc., a convenience store and gas
station chain with about 500 locations across Iowa, Minnesota and
Wisconsin.
NCR will begin placing its kiosks, which are licensed under the
Blockbuster Express brand, in Kwik Trip stores beginning next
month.
NCR Entertainment President Alex Camara said in an interview
that NCR currently has just under 5,000 self-serve rental kiosks
and "so far, everything's going OK" as the company aims to reach
10,000 by the end of 2010. He said NCR should hit 7,000 by the end
of June.
Camara also confirmed the company plans to begin selling DVDs at
its kiosks this summer, though it hasn't yet signed any agreements
with movie studios.
"We've got the technology down, we've got the capabilities to do
this," Camara said. Studios are "very interested."
News of the DVD sales was first reported by Bloomberg Thursday
night.
Shares of Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) rallied Friday, closing up
10.1% at 40 cents. Blockbuster has been in talks with lenders this
spring as it tries to sidestep bankruptcy.
NCR closed Friday down 2.51% at $15.12.
Camara told Dow Jones Newswires that NCR likely wouldn't
discount the DVDs like some brick-and-mortar retailers do, since
the kiosks can't offset losses with many other offerings. He also
noted that some supermarkets that the company operates in may
already sell DVDs and could prohibit NCR from selling them as well.
NCR has outlets in Publix Super Markets Inc. (PUSH), Sheetz Inc.
and other stores.
Camara also confirmed that NCR is in talks with studios to rent
new-release DVDs for $2 per day, double its current rate and double
the rate of competitor Redbox Automated Retail, a unit of Coinstar
Inc. (CSTR). The company now offers a catalogue of older movies
from studios and purchases new-release movies from third-party
retailers to skirt a block that studios have on some outlets
renting DVDs within the first 28 days of release.
Camara didn't provide any timeline for when NCR would begin to
offer $2 new releases.
-By Melissa Korn, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2271;
melissa.korn@dowjones.com
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