DVD kiosks like Redbox have rivals seeing red

— -- We all know that DVDs are dying, and pretty soon people who want to watch movies at home will just stream or download them from the Internet, cable or satellite. Right?

Don't tell that to the executives at Redbox. This mouse of a company — it generated just $389 million in revenue last year — is flooding Walmart, McDonald's, 7-Eleven and other retail, supermarket and convenience store chains with vending machines that rent the latest DVDs of Hollywood blockbusters for just $1 a day.

That combination of low price and convenience has suddenly made Redbox a force with consumers — and a threat to Tinseltown studios and rental giants such as Blockbuster and Netflix, which typically charge much higher prices.

"Our (DVD) product rented at a dollar is grossly undervalued," News Corp. President Chase Carey, whose company owns the Fox studio, told analysts last week. "It's a real issue. And we're actively determining how to deal with it."

It may be too late. Following agreements with Albertson's and Kroger supermarkets, Redbox expects to end this year with 22,000 kiosks in all 48 mainland states, up 61% from the end of 2008. Company parent Coinstar says that revenue from the DVD rental operation could double to as much as $780 million.

"We calculate that 150 million people every week walk within 10 feet of one of our locations," Redbox President Mitch Lowe says. "The way we'll grow is by focusing on the customer experience. That's how we've come out of nowhere."

Success breeds competition, and Blockbuster says it will have nearly 3,000 kiosks renting and selling discs and games by the end of this year, growing to 10,000 in late 2010.

"One of our price points will be 99 cents," Blockbuster CEO James Keyes says. "But we will have a broad range of other offerings."

For now, Redbox is sticking with DVDs while it tests interest in $1-a-day Blu-ray discs.

Its machines stock as many as 700 discs, usually about 200 different titles. Consumers use a credit or debit card to rent DVDs — no membership required — and can return them to any Redbox kiosk. The machines read bar codes on each disc to register what's gone out and come back.