• by Wayne Friedman , March 25, 2009

Following in the footsteps of competitor Netflix, Blockbuster has announced a partnership with TiVo that digitally brings its movie library to consumers with televisions and TiVo digital video recorders.

The deal will be available to about 800,000 TiVo consumers who also have a broadband connection. But unlike the TiVo/Netflix deal, some 4,000 Blockbuster stores will sell TiVo DVR machines -- as well as on the Blockbuster Web site.

Anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 Blockbuster titles will be available, with recent popular titles going for $3.99 for a 24-hour basis. Other movies will be available from $1.99 to $3.99; the purchase of movies is $14.99 to $19.99 each. New releases will be available two to four weeks after they hit video stores.

Blockbuster has been hurt by Netflix, the big mail-order DVD rental business, in recent years. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Netflix rang up its best financial results ever. In turn, Blockbuster started up its own mail-order DVD rental business.

In addition to Blockbuster and Netflix, TiVo has a digital library deal with Amazon.

Netflix also offers movie streaming through Xbox game consoles, and Internet-capable Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, as well as on the Roku digital video player. Blockbuster has digital deals with Internet movie provider Movielink, video-on-demand technology in Vizio televisions and a media player by 2Wire. It plans to expand into other consumer electronics devices.

TiVo has 3.3 million subscribers, of which 1.6 million own stand-alone TiVo DVRs.