After recognizing that consumers would rather drive out to a Redbox machine, cross their fingers that it has a movie that they want to see, carry the disc home, watch the movie, then go back to the Redbox machine to return the disc than just use the Internet to stream a movie directly into their TV or computer, Redbox and Verizon have announced that they’re shutting down Redbox Instant, the companies’ short-lived Netflix competitor. The service launched in March of last year, with subscribers paying $6 a month for about 6,000 streaming movies and special access to physical movie rental offers, but nobody ever seemed to care about it. This comes from Variety, which blames Redbox Instant’s inability to find an audience on “limited content selection and poor marketing.” Netflix, by contrast, has over 10,000 titles on its streaming service (according to InstantWatcher.com), including a bunch of TV shows of varying quality.
In a statement released by Redbox and Verizon, the two companies admitted that the service “was not as successful” as they hoped it would be, but they thanked the people of the world for giving them “the opportunity to entertain you.” You’re welcome, guys. Redbox Instant will officially shut its virtual doors on October 7, giving us all only a few more days to watch a handful of movies that are already on Netflix anyway.