Knocking the Blockbuster: How Online Video Rivals Have Slayed the Giant

"Enjoy the neon lighting and over-priced junk food while you can.  Blockbuster, the video rental chain which at one time seemed to have a blue-and-yellow presence in every strip mall in America, is teetering on the brink of collapse and may file for bankruptcy in the US as early as next month.

In a move that may represent the final nail in the coffin for the neighbourhood video store, the firm's executives are said to have held meetings this week with all six of the so-called "major" Hollywood studios at which they unveiled plans to enter a pre-planned insolvency in the middle of September.

Declining public appetite for DVD rentals, together with increased competition from mail-order rivals such as Netflix, the US version of LoveFilm, have destroyed the firm's business model. It has lost $1.1bn (£710m) since the start of 2008, and was forced to shutter more than a thousand of its American outlets in the past year alone."

To read the entire Independent article, written by Guy Adams, click here.