Blockbuster will shut the outlets by early January and discontinue its DVD-by-mail service by the middle of next month, Englewood, Colo.-based Dish said Wednesday in a statement. The company will keep the licensing rights to the Blockbuster brand and use it with Dish services. It also has a video-streaming product called Blockbuster On Demand.
While the chain had more than 20 stores in Jacksonville less than three years ago, it’s now down to two: one at Atlantic and Hodges boulevards and another on Old St. Augustine Road in Mandarin.
Employees at each store said they were not allowed to talk to the media about the closing.
“You have as much information as I do,” said one woman who asked not to be named.
Dish, which acquired the chain out of bankruptcy in April 2011, had already divested Blockbuster’s international assets, including operations in Britain and Scandinavia. The company has been gradually shutting down the 1,700 stores it acquired. When Blockbuster was owned by Viacom in 2004, it operated about 9,000 locations, before streaming video services such as Netflix devastated the industry.
Then Redbox drove the final nail, expanding to tens of thousands of DVD vending machines. It rented a record 199.5 million videos during the three months that ended Sept. 30.
“This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment,” Dish Chief Executive Officer Joseph Clayton said. “We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings.”
