Blockbuster's go-to-TV strategy: 2Wire is the partner

While Netflix has been busy making different consumer electronics partner announcements, Blockbuster has been silent for a long time. Finally, it was announced today that 2Wire is the CE partner for Blockbuster's Internet movie services. The 2Wire MediaPoint™ digital media player is free if one prepays for 25 BLOCKBUSTER ONDEMAND movies at $99. In its release, 2Wire touted the Media Player's connections (Wi-Fi and Ethernet) and support for HD content. The Dallas Morning News did a nice write-up today on the Blockbuster-2Wire collaboration, noting that the service will start with 2,000 titles (well below the 12,000 offered by Netflix, and the 20,000+ from both iTunes and Amazon.com. Blockbuster says that its big differentiator will be more timely content. They note that titles such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Smart, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The Strangers, and The Love Guru will be among the available offerings when launched.

Hmmmm...Sarah Marshall is probably worth an Internet stream. The others? I'm not so sure.