Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and DVD-rental kiosk company redbox announced this week a multi-year distribution agreement that sets terms for when new releases will be available at the DVD-rental kiosks.
Redbox will make DVD and Blu-ray titles from Fox available for rental at its 20,000 locations following a 28-day window from the home entertainment street date for new Blu-ray and DVD film releases. The agreement also ends the legal dispute between redbox and Fox over access to movie titles, which has been ongoing for nearly a year.
Under the agreement redbox will receive improved economic terms and may offer Fox product four weeks after street date. The agreement also extends redbox's access to Blu-ray titles, which it is testing in select markets. The first windowed release covered under the new agreement is "Avatar," which Fox will directly supply to redbox.
As part of the agreement, redbox will destroy DVDs and Blu-ray discs following their lifespan in the rental kiosks.
"This agreement with Fox…helps us keep rental prices low, foster kiosk expansion and support the rollout of Blu-ray titles in kiosks the middle of this year," said redbox president Mitch Lowe in a press release.
"This arrangement upholds our retail and rental strategy, while allowing us to continue to deliver the best available movies and TV shows in the market to our customers," said Mike Dunn, president-worldwide of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, in a redbox press release.
"We aggressively seek out ways to provide the greatest access to all our content while ensuring it makes the best sense for our business."
The deal is similar to one made between DVD-rental and digital-download provider Netflix and Fox earlier this year.
