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Blockbuster's Bankruptcy: Poor Execution And Bad Milkshakes

Stephen Gandel admits that he was late to the game when he had a feeling about Blockbuster's looming bankruptcy back in April, but CEO James Keyes told him otherwise. But he gathered a lot of rich material back then for a story never written that might serve as a cautionary note to others.

"When Viacom owned Blockbuster, they tried to turn the stores into a dumping ground of Viacom merchandise," he writes. "Dolls and toys and books and other stuff." Like popcorn and pizza. Natural as it may sound, they didn't sell.

Keyes told him in an interview that Rock the Block would boost profits and said he'd use the stores to show off Blockbusters' new home-delivery technology. "Put aside the fact that Keyes was using the stores to sell people on not using the stores, and this made some sense," he writes. But the execution was bad, he found in a visit to a store. And on top of that, the milkshake he bought was too thick and too sweet -- a sure recipe for failure.

In Ad Age, meanwhile, eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna tells us why Netflix has already won the digital TV/Video War against the likes of "newcomers" such as Google, Apple, Amazon, Hulu and nearly the entire entertainment industry. "As long as Netflix continues to get the content licenses it needs to keep its users happy, their attention -- and dollars -- will continue to go to Netflix," he says.

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