How Blockbuster Lost the Netflix War It Saw Coming

Why did Blockbuster fail if it saw Netflix coming? Years before its bankruptcy, Blockbuster wrote the threats down in its own annual report, and then built a Netflix rival that Netflix itself named as a threat. This video follows Blockbuster from more than 9,000 stores in 2004 to its 2010 bankruptcy. It looks past the famous $50 million Netflix meeting to the part most retellings skip: Blockbuster Online, the end of late fees, and Total Access, a counterattack that Netflix itself said appeared to be the main reason its subscriber growth slowed. And it shows why Blockbuster pulled back, and what that cost. Chapters 0:00 Did Blockbuster really miss Netflix coming? 0:37 How big was Blockbuster, and what did it turn down? 1:54 What did fighting Netflix actually cost? 4:04 Did Blockbuster's counterattack work? 7:29 So why did Blockbuster still fail? Sources Blockbuster annual reports and quarterly filings, 2005 to 2010 (SEC EDGAR) Netflix 2007 annual report (SEC EDGAR) Dish Network filing, April 2011 (SEC EDGAR) The Motley Fool, interview with Jim Keyes, December 2008 CNBC reporting on Netflix and Blockbuster, 2007 and 2020