Rentrak Corporation Message Board

Thanks for the article you posted on SI. Very interesting.......

Nice to se some volume today and increase

I posted this site once before. It is the VSDA
discussion board for video retailers. The comments about the
industry and Rentrak in particular are very interesting.


It seems most who knock RENT probably have never
used the company's services and dislike Revenue
Sharing in general. Most complain about the high cost of
tapes (which is understandable) and how BB and other
large chains get tapes at a much lower cost.

The
independents are trying to organize to get the studios to
lower prices. It surprises me that they would think the
studios would even consider it. Many times, it is the
video market that "saves" a movie from being a complete
financial disaster for the studio. They need the high
prices or revenue sharing.

Here is the link as
well as a RENT employee posting a
rebuttal:

http://206.71.226.123/vsdaboard/index.html



>>>Re: Rentrak Ripoff or Retailer
Greed?


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[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ VSDA Member's
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Posted by rentrak on June 27, 1998 at
17:31:10:

In Reply to: Re: Rentrak Ripoff or Retailer Greed?
posted by ann on June
27, 1998 at
12:57:30:

On January 8, 1986 - almost 14 years ago - we
shipped Prizzi's Honor on
PPT. The first stores we
shipped - are still in business. Guess PPT
works at
least for some people. YOURE REVENUE SHARING ALREADY!!
We've
been saying this for 14 years, but the lady
with the math wiz husband &
the others here who
claim PPT won't/can't work obviously don't get it.

Let us suggest you do a little math. See what your
total revenues were
from any ten titles you ordered
six months ago. Divide by your cost.
SURPRISE -
unless you run your store better than the thousands
we're
faimiliar with - your cost was 40-75%. Guess
what - Rentrak's total cost
is between 40-75%,.
All Disney titlles are 6 months. Now do the analysis

for l year. The % won't change much. Bottom line -
are the Rentrak
bashers Ingram employees, Warner
employees, audit failures who cheated
Rentrak - or are
they the 12,000 plus stores on Rentrak - like those

guys who ordered Prizzi's Honor in 1986? Which do you
think? Why should
any satisfied PPT customer kicking
butt- growing his/her business, and
satisfying 3
times as many customers as you are - post anything
positive
on this board - just to help Rentrak sign you
up? As for the Ingram, and
other distributor
agreements - read the fine print. They're exclusive
too.
If not -
make them give you a letter guaranteeing
you that you can also order
from Rentrak. Bet
they refuse!!!!! >>>>>>>


PS Anyone can make a post but in fairness to these
retailers who are trying to make a living, I suggest our
posts be informative and not critical.

Ken

Here is a link to FreeEdgar site for RENT's 10K
annual report, filed just a few hours ago:


http://www.freeedgar.com/search/WL.asp?C=800458&F=10-K&D=6/26/1998

The Definitive 14A Proxy statement has not yet been
filed, but should be interesting to compare major
stockholders this year vs. last year.

You are a true dumbass.Dont you know anything the, settlement is near so stop jamming rods in your rear dumbass.

Does anyone know what is going on with HLYW this week ?
Have they settled with RENT ?? are they in the process ??

Sacklicker

�We are going to do a lot of things to make
Blockbuster present at more
points of sale and grow the
business without using a lot of the great
cash flow
that Blockbuster produces,� Dauman said.

In the
past Blockbuster has soaked up most of its cash flow
in building
new stores, an issue long criticized
on Wall Street. A spokesman for
Viacom said
later that Blockbuster would focus on franchising new

outlets in underserved markets.

Media Group
Research analyst Curt Alexander said the 40% market share

target was �definitely doable,� given the fragmentation
of the market.
After Blockbuster, the only other
operator with more than 5% is
Hollywood Entertainment,
which has been aggressively building new stores
in
the past couple of years.

Most other outlets
are mom-and-pop stores that will find it increasingly

hard to compete against Blockbuster and Hollywood,
both of which are
able to offer more copies of
popular titles under new revenue-sharing

arrangements.

Pay-per-view competition

The big question is whether
increased market share will allow
Blockbuster to raise
its prices. Alexander said that the chain would

likely attempt to do so, he noted that it would take
Blockbuster two or
three years to gain the extra market
share and by that time digital
cable services would
be much more widespread offering many more channels

of pay-per-view.

These services may prevent
Blockbuster from raising its prices too much,
Alexander
said, as consumers would have the option to rent via

pay-per-view rather than going to the video store. Viacom
stock fell 69�
to $54.87 Tuesday.
Get the full
story. Subscribe to VarietyExtra!
Front Page | Search
| Subscribe
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Copyright 1998
Variety, Inc.

Blockbuster might
Vidchain plans growth via
more outlets, kiosks
�
By MARTIN PEERS, June 24,
1998

Having successfully engineered a turnaround of the
Blockbuster video
rental chain, Viacom Inc. now aims to
lift Blockbuster�s vid market
share from 30% to
40% in coming years by blanketing the country with
new
Blockbuster franchised stores and kiosks
placed in banks and at
retailers.

Outlining
the aggressive growth target, Viacom deputy chairman
Philippe
Dauman also revealed Tuesday that
Blockbuster�s recovery has
strengthened in the second
quarter after showing robust growth in the
first
quarter.

Addressing Nationsbanc Montgomery Securities� annual media
conference,
Dauman said Blockbuster�s same-store rental
revenue had increased at a
faster rate in the second
quarter than the first quarter, when
same-store
growth was 9%. A Viacom spokesman declined later to
elaborate
on Dauman�s comments.

Dauman told the
conference that Blockbuster would continue to focus on

increasing its market share in video rental, which has grown
from 25% to
30% in the past few months since
Blockbuster implemented new
revenue-sharing deals with
most major studios to allow for deeper
inventories
of new release videos.

�We are going to
pursue profitable growth with a much more efficient use

of capital than Blockbuster has followed in the
past,� Dauman said,
adding that Viacom wanted to
drive Blockbuster�s market share to 40% but
�not by
building a lot of stores.�

In a reversal of the
strategy followed by Blockbuster until its earnings

plummeted last year, Dauman said Blockbuster would
franchise more
stores. For the past few years
Blockbuster has focused on buying up
franchise stores to
increase the number of company-owned
outlets.

�Stores within stores�

Dauman also said
Blockbuster planned to start trying out Blockbuster

kiosks and �stores within stores,� small versions of a
Blockbuster
outlet placed within department stores and
other retailers. Blockbuster
already has nine such
outlets in WalMart stores in Kansas, Colorado and

Texas and plans to roll out more.

Blockbuster
will also roll out vending machines, already in use
overseas
in such countries as the U.K. and Australia,
where consumers can rent
videos using a credit
card.

Bogusbob,

You may be right but IMO, Wall
Street does not even know RENT exists but I believe that
will change as small caps in general bounce
back.

Earnings will open more institutional investor's eyes and
may attract more than one analyst who follows the
stock.

Better to be ahead of the curve as investors. Patience
will be reward several months down the
road.

Ken