The rumors were proved
wrong with Verizon Communications Inc.(NYSE:VZ) declaring that Redbox Instant
will be launching sometime in 2013, not this month as was initially thought.
However, this public beta version must be out within the next few weeks.
CEO and Chairman of
Verizon, Lowell McAdam has recently announced at an investor conference that after
the public beta experimenting the commercial release of the video streaming.
The DVD rental service is supposed to start at the end of first quarter of 2013
or the starting of the second quarter, as reported
by The Hollywood Reporter.
Mc Adam said at the
conference that the company is in the process of internal employee beta
testing. He seemed pleased with the progress. He said that in the beginning of
the month of January, the company will be opening up to customers but in a beta
format so that the bugs can be shaken out.
McAdam commented on the
significance of the new business enterprise that it opens up a new market and
he is cautiously positive about it.
When asked about the
growth outlook for FiOS pay TV of Verizon and broadband service, McAdam said
that there is plenty of space to grow. He suggested that with the release of
the Redbox venture, superior broadband speeds and new applications, subscriber
momentum could be higher too.
McAdam said that
Verizon has lost a couple of weeks that were worth of installations due to the
devastating Hurricane Sandy. However, the subscriber momentum was not slackened
that much.
Redbox Instant is a
joint venture that was declared in February between Coinstar and Verizon.
Coinstar owns the Redbox DVD rental business. Both the companies have been
working on development of an on-demand video streaming service with DVD
rentals, quite similar to what Netflix, Inc.(NASDAQ:NFLX) offers. Initially, it
was expected that the new service will be introduced in the latter half of
2012.
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