What's next for Blinkbox?
Tesco has been struggling of late, so its decision to sell Blinkbox to TalkTalk was hardly a shock. The supermarket giant isn't a technology company, at least not traditionally, and the video streaming service never really struck a chord with the British public. However, TalkTalk reportedly spent a smooth £5 million for the platform, so clearly it thinks the service still has some potential. If that's the case, what exactly is next for Blinkbox?
For starters, the name "Blinkbox" could soon be relegated to the history books. The Financial Times is reporting that TalkTalk will drop the brand entirely, as it looks to "fully integrate" the service with its TV offerings. As a quick refresher, TalkTalk is already a quad-player provider with a TV service aimed at households who don't want to fork out for Sky, BT and Virgin Media's expensive TV packages. Its entry-level offering is essentially Freeview with some DVR and catch-up services built-in, while its premium Plus TV adds seven Sky entertainment channels into the mix. Although viewers can add 'Boost' packages to access even more channels, really the company is targeting people that just want a little bit of extra telly.
TalkTalk also runs a movie rental service called TalkTalk Box Office, which often has titles on their day of release on DVD. It doesn't offer TV shows though, which would be an obvious expansion if TalkTalk can retain Blinkbox's distributor deals. In its press release announcing the acquisition, TalkTalk also highlighted Blinkbox's "technical expertise" and "multi-platform" delivery, which suggests new apps and device support could be on the cards. In the meantime, TalkTalk will also be generating revenue from Blinkbox in its current form, which is, of course, installed on hundreds of thousands of Hudls across the UK.
If TalkTalk wants to keep Blinkbox's current business model, which promotes buying and renting the best movies and TV shows individually, it has to do more. In short, there are few reasons to choose Blinkbox over competing services such as iTunes and Google Play. The platform isn't competing with subscription services like Netflix or Prime Instant Video either, which appeal to viewers through breadth of content and a low monthly fee. What is Blinkbox's unique selling point? UltraViolet support? That underlying problem is why the service has been such a loss-maker for Tesco. Despite the firm's best efforts, there's never been a good market fit and the service has been hobbling along for months.
For TalkTalk to be successful, it needs to work out what integration will make Blinkbox most appealing, beyond the convenience of it being a button-press away on viewers' remotes.
