We SHOULD have been streaming on Blockbuster and not Netflix today, but history is just a chain of blunders stitched together.
If they could pivot from rentals to streaming, why couldn't Blockbuster have done it?
I purchased VHS tapes, DVDs and subscribed to streaming services within about a decade of each other. That was a big transition for me and I’m technical. With the right kind of revenue sharing, DVD only rentals and cross promotions between streaming and in person rentals/events, they could have had something really interesting. I’m old enough to have rented VHS tapes so this may be a function of my age more than actual opportunity, but I know several people who even now would be far more tempted to subscribe to a streaming service if they could do it in a store.
Again, this is all theoretical, but Blockbuster had a lot of advantages back in the day. It wouldn’t be what it was, but the opportunities are fun to think through.
Where Blockbuster would have moved from brick and mortar to streaming, Netflix would have been moving from mostly a logistics business with warehouses in the middle of nowhere to a streaming/tech business.
On the user side, the storefronts could have helped a lot of less technical people set up their first streaming accounts at home. It was a massive mental leap to go from “movies come out of that box under my tv” to streaming and the storefronts could have helped people make that transition.
It’s all to theoretical to talk about whether it would be good or bad for users. Implementing it correctly would have relied on Blockbuster being able to turn itself into a technology company without cannibalizing those things that made it attractive to makers. That is a very hard thing to do and they had to pull it off in a moving market.