Blockbuster Acquires Movielink

DALLAS, August 9: DVD rental giant Blockbuster is angling
for a foothold in the content download market, announcing the acquisition of
Movielink, the online movie service established by a number of Hollywood
studios.

Movielink offers customers the ability to legally download
entertainment content for rent and for purchase. The service was created in
2002 by a joint venture of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures,
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Studios. All
have VOD and EST deals with Movielink, as do more than 30 other studios,
television content distributors and international and independent
rights-owners.

With the acquisition, Blockbuster can now offer consumers
downloadable entertainment content via their PCs, portable devices, television-connected
home networks and approved set-top boxes.

Blockbuster has been working hard to fend off stiff
competition from Netflix, the online DVD rental company, which mails DVDs
directly to subscribers. In January, Netflix began allowing users to stream
selected content directly from the site.

"Blockbuster is committed to keeping pace with the
changing needs of customers by offering them an expanding array of convenient
ways to access entertainment content," said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster’s
chairman and CEO. "Our acquisition of Movielink, with its associated
digital content, is the next logical step in our planned transformation of
Blockbuster. Now, in addition to the entertainment content we provide through
our stores and by mail, we have taken an important step toward being able to
make movie downloading conveniently available to computers, portable devices
and ultimately to the television at home."

Blockbuster plans to continue to operate the Movielink
service and to eventually make elements of the service available through
blockbuster.com.