Opinion: Movielink’s first Blockbuster

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Here’s a couple of dueling milestones to ponder. Late yesterday afternoon, Blockbuster announced that it had purchased Movielink, a downloadable movie site co-founded by five Hollywood studios in August 2001. With the acquisition, most Hollywood studios are now out of the business of selling downloadable movies directly to consumers. The exceptions are News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox and NBC Universal, which had their own announcement yesterday: they sold a 10% stake in their new online video venture to Providence Equity Partners for $100 million. That venture will offer the pair’s movies and TV shows to online viewers through a limited number of websites, including one that they will own and operate. Read more about these developments at the Bit Player blog.