It’s going to get a little more expensive to rent DVDs, games and Blu-ray discs from your neighborhood Redbox kiosk.
Outerwall, the parent company of Redbox, announced today that DVD rentals in the U.S. will increase from $1.20 to $1.50 and Blu-ray discs will increase from $1.50 to $2 as of Dec. 2. The daily rental rate of video games will jump from $2 to $3 on Jan. 6.
“With new-release movies for $1.50 a day, Redbox remains the best value in new-release home entertainment. Consumers can continue to expect access to the newest movies months before streaming subscription services and daily prices that are still lower than Video On Demand,” said J. Scott Di Valerio, Outerwall’s chief executive officer. “The pricing adjustments announced today will allow Redbox to continue to offer consumers high quality movies and games while making investments to enhance the customer experience.”
The company said the price increases mark just the second time in 12 years that they’ve raised prices on DVDs.
The moves come a few weeks after Outerwall ended a streaming video partnership with Verizon called Redbox Instant, one which failed to gain traction against rival Netflix.
In August, Bellevue-based Outerwall blamed a poor movie release schedule from Hollywood for poor sales at its Redbox unit. Redbox revenues for the quarter were $445.5 million, down almost 7 percent year-over-year.
