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Cable, kiosks and computers fast-forwarding DVD industry's decline

13.06.10

The show's over for a bevy of DVD rental stores.

Video rental stores have been closing for years, but the determine quickened in the last 12 months, with a number of large stores in Northeast Pennsylvania shuttering as consumers use new ways to get video exhibition.

The brick-and-mortar stores face an assault on multiple fronts.

Self-minister to kiosks, such as those operated by Redbox, offer $1-per-tenebrousness rentals to people shopping or gassing up the car. Netflix.com delivers movies to members' homes and never levies a till charge. Millions of those bored with whatever is on cable television are watching programming on-bid -much of which comes at no additional cost and is just a button away.

"DVD rental stores appearance onslaught after onslaught," said Jan Saxton, imperfection president of Adams Media Research in California. "This will keep on, and they will slowly decay."

The number of video rental stores nationally peaked in 1989 in the VHS era at 89,000, she said. Since then, pile up counts dipped to 40,500 in 1997 when inexpensive DVDs debuted and cut the legs out from under video rentals. The slues of stores contracted further to 27,000 in 2003 and last year level to 14,000.

Source: Scranton Times-Tribune