Now that the movie rental kiosk company Redbox has helped push the movie rental stores out of business, will they now raise prices like Netflix just did?
They have already raised rental rates in Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon by as much as 20%. This puts DVD rentals in these markets at $1.15 or $1.20 per night instead of the standard $1 everywhere else. This is not much compared to the 60% price increase from Netflix a month ago.
Redbox made this statement:
As we’ve done in the past, Redbox is currently testing alternative daily rental prices in a few local markets. We have not made plans to expand the test or to permanently change our pricing.
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With testing prices expanding into other markets like Miami, San Diego, and Modesto, California, is it a sign that an increase in DVD rental will soon be permanent? Redbox says they have no plans to make the price increases permanent.
Blu-ray and video game prices haven’t changed in these “testing” markets so it is unknown if they will be affected. Even if Redbox increases DVD rentals by 20%, it’s still cheaper than video on demand like iTunes, Vudu, Blockbuster, and Apple TV.
