I've been a member of Blockbuster Online for a few years now (I switched from Netflix) and even though I love the service simply because Total Access is such a great deal, I never saw myself sticking with Blockbuster in the long run because they had seemingly no online digital distribution strategy. I may have to reconsider that long term position now as it's being reported that Blockbuster has finalized a deal to buy the heavily studio-backed service, Movielink.

Blockbuster + Movielink - if handled correctly (and that's a huge IF) - could end up being a...well, blockbuster deal. Blockbuster all of a sudden has a major digital distribution system with the backing of almost all the major studios - one which some believe is only failing because for some reason the studios wanted to put almost no money into promoting it (probably hoping this whole digital "fad" would blow over). Now they just need a way to get these digital copies to people's televisions...

I was sure that with all the major player dropping the ball (Netflix, Amazon's Unbox, and Blockbuster), Apple would eventually step in with an online rental system and destroy them all. While I still think that is probably pretty likely, Blockbuster and Movielink might have a small window of opportunity as long as the other movie studios keep blackballing Apple...and providing they put an end to the ridiculous practice of having online rental systems be PC-only.