Alex Camara, NCR Corp.'s vice president of entertainment solutions, Wednesday said the company will carry its $60 million self-service entertainment strategy into 2010, by continuing to roll out its Blockbuster Express DVD-rental kiosks and concentrating on the expansion of its digital movie-download solution developed with MOD Systems.
"It's an enormous investment for NCR," he said. "We've really made a very huge decision to get into this space strategically. It's a very big, important initiative."
NCR on Monday announced that it would test the digital-movie-download kiosk in six Blockbuster and Hollywood Video locations. On the floor of the KioskCom Self Service Expo, Camara demonstrated the solution and spoke about the role of digital download technology in NCR's entertainment strategy.
"Digital is going to play a very important part in our growth," he said. "We see this as the replacement for DVD rental in the years to come."
Camara says that while NCR will continue to concentrate on its Blockbuster Express line of kiosks and consumers will continue to gravitate toward the solution, digital download eventually will eclipse DVD-rental because it will be more convenient and the content more ubiquitous.
In terms of NCR's future plans, Camara says the company will launch an online-reservation functionality for the Blockbuster Express kiosks later this year and that it will continue to explore self-service solutions in the gaming segment.
"Industry data shows that the gaming industry will grow very aggressively in the coming years," he said, "and there are a number of retailers wanting to enter the buy/sell/trade space."
