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The Rise and Fall, The Rise And Fall Of Blockbuster

The Rise And Fall Of Blockbuster

Irene Kim: At its peak in the late '90s,

Blockbuster owned over 9,000 video-rental stores

in the United States,

employed 84,000 people worldwide,

and had 65 million registered customers.

Once valued as a $3 billion company,

in just one year, Blockbuster earned

$800 million in late fees alone.

♪ Blockbuster Video, wow! ♪

But fast-forward a decade,

and Blockbuster ceased to exist,

having filed for bankruptcy

with over $900 million in debt.

So, what happened?

Blockbuster was founded by David Cook,

a software supplier in the oil and gas industry.

After studying the potential of a video-store business

for a friend, he realized that a well-franchised chain

could grow to 1,500 units.

And so the first Blockbuster store

opened in Dallas on October 19, 1985.

Andy Ash: According to David Cook, the opening night

of that first Blockbuster store was a huge success.

The story goes that they actually had to lock the doors

because of overcrowding.

The thing that really set Blockbuster apart at that time

was their huge range of titles.

Other independent video stores

could only keep track of 100 or so movies.

Blockbuster had an innovative new barcode system,

which meant that they could track up to 10,000 VHSs

per store to each registered customer,

which also meant that they could keep an eye

on those lucrative late fees.

Kim: Off the back of this success,

Cook built a $6 million distribution center,

not only so that new stores could pop up quickly,

but also to house a huge range of titles,

so that each store's inventory

could be tailored to local demographics.

Commercial: Wow! Wow!

Wow!

Kim: In 1987, Blockbuster received

$18.5 million from a trio of investors,

including Waste Management founder Wayne Huizenga,

in return for voting control,

but after two months of intense disagreements,

Cook left Blockbuster and Huizenga assumed control.

Under Huizenga, Blockbuster embarked

on an aggressive expansion plan,

buying out existing video-rental chains

while opening new stores at a rate of one per day.

By 1988, just three years after the first store opened,

Blockbuster was America's No. 1 video chain,

with over 400 stores nationwide.

But as Blockbuster became a multibillion-dollar company

in the early '90s,

adding music and video-game rental to its stores,

Huizenga was worried about how emerging technology

like cable television

could hurt Blockbuster's video-store model.

After briefly considering buying a cable company

and even receiving approval from the Florida Legislature

to build a Blockbuster amusement park in Miami,

Huizenga offloaded Blockbuster to media giant Viacom

for $8 billion in 1994.

In only two years under Viacom,

Blockbuster lost half of its value.

Commercial: You can go one of two ways.

Kim: While Blockbuster and its new boss, John Antioco,

focused on brick-and-mortar video stores,

technological innovations

meant that competition was on the rise.

In 1997, Reed Hastings founded Netflix,

a DVD-by-mail rental service at the time,

in part after being frustrated

with a $40 late fee from Blockbuster.

Two years later, having passed on an opportunity

to buy Netflix for $50 million,

Blockbuster teamed up with Enron

to create a video-on-demand service.

In a deal that saw Enron do most of the work,

a robust video-on-demand platform was successfully built

and tested with customers.

But it soon became clear to Enron

that Blockbuster was so focused

on its lucrative video stores

that it had little time or commitment

for the video-on-demand business.

As a result, in 2001,

Blockbuster walked away from the first

major development of wide-scale movie streaming.

Within a few years, Netflix and other competitors

began to eat into Blockbuster's profits,

not by undercutting it,

but by reimagining video rental in the digital age.

Commercial: There's a better way to rent movies.

Go to Netflix.com,

make a list of the movies you wanna see,

and in about one business day you'll get three DVDs.

Keep them as long as you want, without late fees.

Then, when you're done, look: prepaid envelopes.

Return one and they'll send you

another movie from your list.

Netflix. All the movies you want,

20 bucks a month, and no late fees.

Kim: It took Blockbuster almost five years

to introduce its own DVD-by-mail service

and even longer to scrap late fees.

Commercial: No more late fees!

No more late fees!

No more late fees?

Kim: By that time, Netflix had amassed

almost 3 million customers,

had no store overheads,

and was preparing to launch

its revolutionary streaming service.

Blockbuster's troubles continued through the mid-2000s.

After parting from Viacom

and experimenting with in-store concepts

such as DVD and game trading,

Blockbuster was in the midst of an identity crisis.

In 2009, Netflix posted earnings

of $116 million.

Meanwhile, Blockbuster,

with its continuing business problems

and legal battles, lost $518 million.

On July 1, 2010, Blockbuster was delisted

from the New York Stock Exchange.

Its foray into video-on-demand streaming

came too late, and over the next three years,

Blockbuster died a slow and painful death.

DVD-by-mail services stopped,

its various partnerships folded,

and stores worldwide

were rapidly plunged into administration.

Commercial: We're closing early.

Kim: Its 9,000-strong chain

had been reduced to one single franchise

in Bend, Oregon.

As a result of Blockbuster's complete shutdown,

one can only speculate about what could have been

for the once home-movie giant.

Ash: They were too busy making money

in their video stores

to imagine a time when people

would no longer want or need them.

And in a bid to rescue their business,

their answer at the time was to fight fire with fire.

At one point they even opened up rental kiosks,

a little bit like a vending machine,

but all of these attempts were based

on either outdated technology

or outdated business models,

whereas Netflix at the time,

they did the opposite; they streamlined,

they were able to see the future of video rentals

and then innovate for that future.

Blockbuster, they didn't seem to understand

how the next generation, particularly millennials,

who grew up in a world without hard-copy media

like DVDs and CDs, how they would react

to video-on-demand as technology improved.

And that's why Netflix,

Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Hulu,

they're still all in business,

whilst Blockbuster got left behind.

Kim: According to Netflix's former

Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy,

as part of the failed 2000 Blockbuster-Netflix buyout,

Reed Hastings proposed that Netflix

would run the Blockbuster brand online.

If that deal had been successful

and Hastings had replicated

Netflix's innovation for Blockbuster,

the face of home video

would likely still be blue and yellow.

The last-ever Blockbuster movie

was rented on November 9, 2013.

Fittingly, the film in question was "This Is the End."

Learn languages from TV shows, movies, news, articles and more! Try LingQ for FREE

The Rise And Fall Of Blockbuster |||||L'ascension et la chute de Blockbuster |||||video rental chain |||||Blockbuster Der Aufstieg und Fall von Blockbuster Auge y declive de Blockbuster L'ascension et la chute de Blockbuster ブロックバスターの興亡 블록버스터의 흥망성쇠 "Blockbuster" iškilimas ir žlugimas De opkomst en ondergang van Blockbuster Powstanie i upadek Blockbustera A ascensão e queda da Blockbuster Взлет и падение блокбастера Blockbuster'ın Yükselişi ve Düşüşü Зліт і падіння блокбастера 百视达的兴衰 百視達的興衰

Irene Kim: At its peak in the late '90s, ||||ápice||||

Blockbuster owned over 9,000 video-rental stores 百视达||||| ||||location de vidéos| Блокбастер||||| 百视达拥有超过 9,000 家录像带租赁店

in the United States,

employed 84,000 people worldwide, занятых||

and had 65 million registered customers. |||註冊的|

Once valued as a $3 billion company,

in just one year, Blockbuster earned

$800 million in late fees alone. |||штрафы| |||Gebühren| 光是滯納金就達 8 億美元。

♪ Blockbuster Video, wow! ♪

But fast-forward a decade, |spulen|vorspulen|| 但快进十年，

and Blockbuster ceased to exist, ||停止營業|| ||a cessé d'exister|| ||stopped operating|| ||hörte auf||existieren ||deixou de existir|| 百視達不復存在，

having filed for bankruptcy |申请|| |beantragt|für|Insolvenz |подал заявление||банкротство |申請||

with over $900 million in debt. ||||債務超過九億美元 ||||Schulden 負債超過 9 億美元。

So, what happened?

Blockbuster was founded by David Cook, 百視達由大衛庫克創立，

a software supplier in the oil and gas industry. ||软件供应商|||||| ||fournisseur de logiciels|||||| ||Lieferant|||||| ||поставщик программного обеспечения|||||| 石油和天然气行业的软件供应商。

After studying the potential of a video-store business

for a friend, he realized that a well-franchised chain |||||||хорошо|франшизная| ||||||||bien franchisée| ||||||||well-established chain| |||||||良好|特許經營|連鎖店 ||||||||franchisene| ||||||||特许经营的| Für einen Freund erkannte er, dass eine gut franchisierte Kette 对于一位朋友来说，他意识到一个特许经营良好的连锁店

could grow to 1,500 units. auf 1.500 Einheiten wachsen könnte. 可能会增长到1,500个单位。

And so the first Blockbuster store ||||Video rental store| Und so entstand der erste Blockbuster-Laden.

opened in Dallas on October 19, 1985. ||Далласе|| 1985年10月19日在達拉斯開幕。

Andy Ash: According to David Cook, the opening night Andy Ash||||||||

of that first Blockbuster store was a huge success.

The story goes that they actually had to lock the doors ||||||пришлось||запереть||

because of overcrowding. ||переполненность ||à cause de la surpopulation ||Überfüllung

The thing that really set Blockbuster apart at that time ||||||區別開來||| ||||||abgehoben||| 当时真正让百视达与众不同的是

was their huge range of titles. 是他們的標題種類繁多。

Other independent video stores 其他獨立音像店

could only keep track of 100 or so movies. |||记录|||| 只能追踪100部左右的电影。

Blockbuster had an innovative new barcode system, |||创新的||条形码| |||||штрих-код| |||創新的||| 百视达拥有创新的条形码系统，

which meant that they could track up to 10,000 VHSs |||||追蹤|最多||錄影帶 |bedeutete||||verfolgen|||VHS-Kassetten ||||||||кассет

per store to each registered customer, ||||註冊| 每個商店每個註冊客戶，

which also meant that they could keep an eye 這也意味著他們可以密切關注

on those lucrative late fees. ||丰厚的|| ||lukrativen||Gebühren ||有利可圖的|| 那些丰厚的滞纳金。

Kim: Off the back of this success, |Auf||Rücken||| |graças a|||||

Cook built a $6 million distribution center, ||||配送中心| ||||centre de distribution| ||||Vertriebs| ||||配送中心| 庫克耗資 600 萬美元建造了一座配送中心，

not only so that new stores could pop up quickly, |||||||冒出来|| |||||||迅速開張|| 不仅可以让新店迅速涌现，

but also to house a huge range of titles, |||容納||||| |||verwalten||||| 还可以容纳大量的图书，

so that each store's inventory |||магазина|инвентарь |||des Geschäfts|Inventar ||||库存 ||||庫存量

could be tailored to local demographics. ||адаптирован к|||демографическим данным ||adapté à|||démographie locale ||adaptado||| ||量身定制|||人口特徵 ||angepasst|||Demografie ||量身定制||| könnte auf die lokale Demografie zugeschnitten werden. 可以根据当地人口状况进行定制。

Commercial: Wow! Wow!

Wow!

Kim: In 1987, Blockbuster received Kim：1987 年，Blockbuster 获得了

$18.5 million from a trio of investors, |||三位投资者|| |||trio d'investisseurs|| |||three investors|| |||тройка|| |||三位投資者|| 来自三位投资者的 1,850 万美元，

including Waste Management founder Wayne Huizenga, ||||Уэйн Хуизенга|Уэйна Хуизенги ||||Wayne|Huizenga |||||Wayne Huizenga 包括廢棄物管理創始人韋恩·休伊曾加 (Wayne Huizenga)，

in return for voting control, |||голосования контроля| |||Stimmen| |||election participation| 作为投票控制权的回报，

but after two months of intense disagreements, |||||激烈的|爭執 ||||||разногласий

Cook left Blockbuster and Huizenga assumed control. |||||接管|控制權 |||||übernahm| 庫克離開了百視達，休伊曾加接管了控制權。

Under Huizenga, Blockbuster embarked |||приступила к |||entrepris |||began a journey |||在惠曾加的領導下，百視達開始 |||begann |||在...开始

on an aggressive expansion plan, ||積極的|擴張計劃|

buying out existing video-rental chains ||現有||| |||||цепей 收购现有的录像带租赁连锁店

while opening new stores at a rate of one per day. 同时以每天一家的速度开设新店。

By 1988, just three years after the first store opened,

Blockbuster was America's No. 1 video chain,

with over 400 stores nationwide. |||全國各地 |||по всей стране

But as Blockbuster became a multibillion-dollar company |||||многомиллиардная|| |||||multimilliardaire|| |||||multimilliarden||

in the early '90s,

adding music and video-game rental to its stores, 在其商店中增加音樂和視頻遊戲租賃服務，

Huizenga was worried about how emerging technology |||||新兴的| |||||新興|

like cable television |有线电视| |有線電視| 像有线电视

could hurt Blockbuster's video-store model. ||Блокбастера||| ||du modèle Blockbuster||| ||Blockbusters|||

After briefly considering buying a cable company |短暫考慮||||| |kurz|überlegen||||

and even receiving approval from the Florida Legislature |||批准||||佛羅里達州議會 |||||||Législature de Floride |||||||state lawmaking body |||||||Законодательный орган |||||||佛罗里达州议会

to build a Blockbuster amusement park in Miami, ||||游乐园||| |||||||Майами ||||遊樂園||| 在迈阿密建造一座百视达游乐园，

Huizenga offloaded Blockbuster to media giant Viacom |продал|||||Виаком |cédé||||| |sold|||||media conglomerate |despachou||||| |verkaufte|||||Viacom |转让||||| Huizenga 将 Blockbuster 出售给媒体巨头 Viacom

for $8 billion in 1994.

In only two years under Viacom, |||||维亚康姆

Blockbuster lost half of its value.

Commercial: You can go one of two ways. 商业：你可以选择两种方式之一。

Kim: While Blockbuster and its new boss, John Antioco, ||百视达|||||| |||||neuen|||Antioco ||||||||John Antioco ||||||||安提奧科 ||||||||Антиоко

focused on brick-and-mortar video stores, ||кирпичных|||| ||magasins physiques|||| ||stationären||Mörtel|| ||||physical retail locations|| ||||实体店|| fokussiert auf stationäre Videotheken, 专注于实体音像店，

technological innovations technologiques|innovations technologiques technologische| technologische Innovationen

meant that competition was on the rise. bedeuten, dass der Wettbewerb zunahm.

In 1997, Reed Hastings founded Netflix, |Рид Хастингс|Рид Хастингс|| ||Hastings|| ||Reed Hastings||

a DVD-by-mail rental service at the time, |DVD по почте||||||| |DVD||Post||||| ||||租賃服務||||

in part after being frustrated |Teil||| 部分原因是受挫

with a $40 late fee from Blockbuster. |||плата|| ||atraso||| 需向百視達收取 40 美元的滯納金。

Two years later, having passed on an opportunity ||||verpasst||| Zwei Jahre später, nachdem sie eine Gelegenheit verpasst hatten 兩年後，放棄了一次機會

to buy Netflix for $50 million, Netflix für 50 Millionen Dollar zu kaufen,

Blockbuster teamed up with Enron |объединилась||| |s'est associé||| |teamed|||Enron ||||energy company |se uniu||| arbeitete Blockbuster mit Enron zusammen 百视达与安然合作

to create a video-on-demand service. |||||需求| |||Video||abruf| einen Video-on-Demand-Dienst zu erstellen. 创建视频点播服务。

In a deal that saw Enron do most of the work, ||Geschäft|||||||| In einem Vertrag, bei dem Enron den Großteil der Arbeit geleistet hat, 在一筆由安然公司承擔大部分工作的交易中，

a robust video-on-demand platform was successfully built |强大的||||||| |robuste||||||| |強大的||||||| wurde erfolgreich eine robuste Video-on-Demand-Plattform aufgebaut. 成功搭建了强大的视频点播平台

and tested with customers.

But it soon became clear to Enron ||||||Энрон

that Blockbuster was so focused

on its lucrative video stores ||盈利丰厚|| 利润丰厚的音像店

that it had little time or commitment ||||Zeit||Engagement dass es wenig Zeit oder Engagement hatte

for the video-on-demand business. für das Video-on-Demand-Geschäft.

As a result, in 2001, ||Ergebnis| Infolge dessen, im Jahr 2001,

Blockbuster walked away from the first

major development of wide-scale movie streaming. große|||||Film| wichtige Entwicklung des breit gefächerten Filmstreamings. 大规模电影流媒体的重大发展。

Within a few years, Netflix and other competitors |||||||Wettbewerber Innerhalb weniger Jahre begannen Netflix und andere Wettbewerber

began to eat into Blockbuster's profits, |||||利潤 ||essen||| |||||lucros |||||прибыль Blockbusters Gewinne zu schmälern,

not by undercutting it, ||подрывая это| ||sans le saper| ||undermining or weakening| ||desvalorizando| ||unterbieten| ||不是通过削弱| nicht durch Unterbietung, 而不是通过削弱它，

but by reimagining video rental in the digital age. ||重新構想|||||| ||réinventer|||||| ||rethinking or reinventing|||||| ||neu denken|||||| sondern durch die Neuinterpretation der Videovermietung im digitalen Zeitalter. 而是通过重新构想数字时代的视频租赁。

Commercial: There's a better way to rent movies. Kommerziell: Es gibt einen besseren Weg, Filme zu mieten.

Go to Netflix.com,

make a list of the movies you wanna see,

and in about one business day you'll get three DVDs. |||||||||диска |||||||||DVDs

Keep them as long as you want, without late fees.

Then, when you're done, look: prepaid envelopes. |||||預付郵封|預付信封 |||||prépayé|enveloppes prépayées |||||vorgestempelte|Briefumschläge |||||предоплаченные| 然后，当您完成后，查看：预付邮资的信封。

Return one and they'll send you 退回一張，他們就會寄給你

another movie from your list.

Netflix. All the movies you want,

20 bucks a month, and no late fees. 每月 20 美元，无滞纳金。

Kim: It took Blockbuster almost five years

to introduce its own DVD-by-mail service

and even longer to scrap late fees. ||||取消|| ||||supprimer|| ||||eliminate|| ||||abschaffen|| ||||отменить|| 甚至需要更长的时间才能取消滞纳金。

Commercial: No more late fees!

No more late fees!

No more late fees?

Kim: By that time, Netflix had amassed ||||||积累了 ||||||accumulé ||||||angesammelt Kim: Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatte Netflix

almost 3 million customers, fast 3 Millionen Kunden,

had no store overheads, |||накладные расходы |||frais généraux |||operating expenses |||Betriebskosten |||custos indiretos hatte keine Ladenbetriebskosten, 没有店铺管理费用，

and was preparing to launch 并准备推出

its revolutionary streaming service. |революционный|| |révolutionnaire|| |revolutionären|| 其革命性的流媒体服务。

Blockbuster's troubles continued through the mid-2000s.

After parting from Viacom |разделившись|| |Trennung|| |separação|| |||离开维亚康姆后 Nach der Trennung von Viacom

and experimenting with in-store concepts |expérimenter avec|||| und dem Experimentieren mit Konzepten im Geschäft 並嘗試店內概念

such as DVD and game trading, wie DVD- und Spielhandel,

Blockbuster was in the midst of an identity crisis. ||||||||危機 百視達正處於身份危機之中。

In 2009, Netflix posted earnings ||опубликовала|прибыль 2009年，Netflix公佈了獲利

of $116 million.

Meanwhile, Blockbuster,

with its continuing business problems

and legal battles, lost $518 million.

On July 1, 2010, Blockbuster was delisted ||||выведен из списка ||||von der Börse genommen ||||removed from listing ||||retirada da lista

from the New York Stock Exchange. 來自紐約證券交易所。

Its foray into video-on-demand streaming |incursion||||| |initial venture||||| |investida||||| |進軍||||| |Vorstoß||||| |涉足||||| 進軍視訊點播串流領域

came too late, and over the next three years,

Blockbuster died a slow and painful death.

DVD-by-mail services stopped,

its various partnerships folded, |各种|| ||partenariats divers|se sont terminés |||falten seine verschiedenen Partnerschaften aufgegeben, 其各种合作关系终止，

and stores worldwide

were rapidly plunged into administration. |迅速地|迅速陷入||破產管理 ||plongés|| ||gestürzt||Verwaltung wurden schnell in die Verwaltung eingegliedert. 迅速陷入行政管理。

Commercial: We're closing early. Gewerbe: Wir schließen frühzeitig.

Kim: Its 9,000-strong chain Kim: Seine 9.000 starke Kette Kim：擁有 9,000 多人的連鎖店

had been reduced to one single franchise ||||||特许经营权 ||||||franchise unique ||||||特許經營權 已经沦为一家特许经营商

in Bend, Oregon. |in Bend, Oregon| 在俄勒岡州本德。

As a result of Blockbuster's complete shutdown, ||||||Schließung

one can only speculate about what could have been |||猜测||||| |||spekulieren||||| |||猜測||||| 人們只能推測可能發生的情況

for the once home-movie giant. 對於曾經的家庭電影巨頭來說。

Ash: They were too busy making money

in their video stores

to imagine a time when people

would no longer want or need them.

And in a bid to rescue their business, |||爭取||拯救|| |||Versuch|||| Und im Versuch, ihr Geschäft zu retten, 为了挽救他们的生意，

their answer at the time was to fight fire with fire. ||||||||||以火攻火 war ihre Antwort damals, mit denselben Mitteln zu kämpfen. 他們當時的答案是以毒攻毒。

At one point they even opened up rental kiosks, ||||||||租赁亭 ||||||||bornes de location ||||||||租賃亭 An einem Punkt eröffneten sie sogar Mietkioske, 有一次他們甚至開設了租賃亭，

a little bit like a vending machine, |||||distributeur automatique| |||||dispensing| |||||Verkaufsautomaten|

but all of these attempts were based

on either outdated technology ||过时的| ||obsolète| ||veraltete|

or outdated business models,

whereas Netflix at the time, während|||| 而當時的 Netflix，

they did the opposite; they streamlined, |||||简化了 |||||rationalisé |||||rationalisierten

they were able to see the future of video rentals |||||||||locations de vidéos |||||||||verleih

and then innovate for that future. ||innover pour ce futur||| ||innovieren||| 然後為未來進行創新。

Blockbuster, they didn't seem to understand

how the next generation, particularly millennials, |||||千禧一代 ||||insbesondere| |||||young adults how the next generation, particularly millennials,

who grew up in a world without hard-copy media

like DVDs and CDs, how they would react wie DVDs und CDs, wie sie reagieren würden

to video-on-demand as technology improved. mit der Verbesserung der Technologie auf Video-on-Demand umgestellt.

And that's why Netflix,

Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Hulu, ||||Hulu ||||Streaming service platform

they're still all in business,

whilst Blockbuster got left behind. 而与此同时|||| während||||

Kim: According to Netflix's former |||von Netflix|

Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy, |||Barry| ||||CFO McCarthy

as part of the failed 2000 Blockbuster-Netflix buyout, |||||||rachat de Blockbuster-Netflix |||||||acquisition attempt |||||||Übernahme als Teil der gescheiterten Übernahme von Blockbuster durch Netflix im Jahr 2000,

Reed Hastings proposed that Netflix Netflix co-founder|||| Reed Hastings schlug vor, dass Netflix Reed Hastings 提议 Netflix

would run the Blockbuster brand online. würde die Marke Blockbuster online betreiben.

If that deal had been successful

and Hastings had replicated |||复制了 |||répété |||copied or reproduced |||repliziert 黑斯廷斯複製了

Netflix's innovation for Blockbuster,

the face of home video

would likely still be blue and yellow. |wahrscheinlich||||| 可能仍然是藍色和黃色。

The last-ever Blockbuster movie

was rented on November 9, 2013. |a été loué|| |gemietet||

Fittingly, the film in question was "This Is the End." 恰如其分||||||||| De manière appropriée||||||||| Appropriately||||||||| passenderweise||||||||| Fittingly, the film in question was "This Is the End." 恰如其分的是，這部電影是《這就是結局》。