Redbox just announced today they are leaving the Canadian market starting on February 13 stating the sales didn't meet their expectations.

They will continue to focus on the US market where the demand remains stronger.

It will interesting to see how that affects the sales chart over the next few weeks.

See the link:

http://www.kelownanow.com/news/news/...Leaving_Canada

The beginning of the end?

The end of the beginning?

So what aboot Canadians that still want to rent movies, eh? Do they still have video stores up there or something? I can't imagine the whole country has gone streaming.

It would be weird if that happened in the U.S. because there many places left besides redbox that rent physical discs.

What about Netflix? Do they ship discs to Canada? I would imagine Redbox going out has more to do with that than the whole "death of physical media" issue. More people tend to use Netflix (even for physical disc renting) than they do with Redbox.

Canadians are way ahead of Americans. They know 95% of movies are no longer worth paying for. You can watch them over the air for free. Just hook up an antenna to your TV.

Netflix streaming is the only thing available in Canada. Doesn't really surprise me since most of the Redbox locations I seen where located in grocery stores and gas stations.

Well, that's where they're mostly located at here.

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Just another quick sign in the loud death knell of physical media. Redbox was probably one of their best customers.

LAME.
The only reason I don't rent from Redbox more often is because most titles are DVD only.
So now we have nowhere to rent physical discs... and no decent options for digital rentals (Nothing as good as Amazon or Vudu here).

As of mid-2013, Family Video had 13 stores in Canada (mostly Ontario, I believe). They started opening stores here in 2012. Pretty sure they're beyond 13 now, but most of those stores are in smaller cities where not everyone cares about or can justify streaming or downloading or digital copies when they just want to see a single movie now and again.

Toronto still has a handful of independent video stores, but they're not generally convenient for the majority of people here (despite their broad range of offerings), and tend to be in hipster-ish parts of downtown where novelty still rules supreme and access is within walking distance. The Family Video location in my old home town, far outside Toronto, is booming, especially on Thursday to Saturday nights. Canada lost Blockbuster prematurely, entirely due to the issues the company had in the U.S., not here. Those stores weren't exactly buzzing anymore, but again in the smaller cities and towns, they still had a steady flow of customers. Family Video simply swooped in and plugged the hole. Obviously, the clock is still ticking, but until it runs out, I'll enjoy walking their aisles whenever I return home for a visit. Unlike overpriced Blockbuster back in the day, their rates are more than fair (and especially if you realize just how anemic Netflix Canada is, and don't care to pay more to cheat with Unblocker), and their 50¢ and $1.00 aisles have been great ways to catch up on odds n' ends I've missed over the last few years, including a LOT of stuff that isn't available from out rather pathetic, lowest common denominator online services. And I say all this as someone who streams on a moderate basis.

Family Video has no locations in my city (and province?). There are a few independent stores I guess, but none of them are in remotely convenient locations for the majority of people.

All of the "official" streaming rental options here are terrible. Cable providers are over-priced, and their quality is questionable. I have access to Amazon and Vudu, but with our dollar in the dumps, it's not worth it to rent on either of those anymore. The current exchange rate kills it.

I do wonder if some Canadian company will jump in where Redbox has left. I remember seeing Best Buy movie kiosks for awhile, but as far as I can tell, those are long gone. The only companies big enough would be Rogers/Bell/Shaw, but... there's no way I'm supporting any of them more than I have to.

The Canadian entertainment industry is so fucked up.

Maybe I'll just run a DVD & Blu-ray rental service out of my basement.

At this stage I can't really see another company coming along and replacing the Redbox kiosks.

If a huge, established American company can't make a go of it, I don't see a smaller company with a magic-bullet formula replacing them.

It does leave a big gap in the market. In the Vancouver area, all of the video stores have left except for two or three specialty stores hanging on by their fingernails.

The library seems to have a decent selection but they only have two or three copies of, say, Guardians of the Galaxy, and they are three-day rentals. It's just luck if you happen to borrow a copy.

Is rent-by-mail not viable because of the size of the country? I don't know what the mail service is like, but that would be a big factor as well, obviously.

Yeah, just wishful thinking on my part.

Same here on all counts. There's just no decent options left.

Netflix launched here without even allowing for rent-by-mail.
Zip.ca used to do rent-by-mail, but failed.
In theory, it's great if you're near a hub (usually Vancouver or Toronto-area), but if not, the delivery to smaller cities or rural areas is pretty terrible.

Does your library have a waiting list? Some people aren't aware of this. My library has an online waiting list where you can reserve a movie. They have a few copies of a movie they put on shelves for anyone to grab, but then they also have a few more copies that are prioritized to people on the waiting list.

The trick is you need to get on the list early. For example, Interstellar isn't coming out until March, but I got on the waiting list weeks ago. I am 9th in line. If I had waited until closer to release day, there would be many more people ahead of me in the line.

You have to wait in line for your turn by doing this, but it's still better than just taking a random chance on when it will be available on the library shelves.

My local library has a kiosk system since 2005, which was quite revolutionary for its time.

On the library website you can reserve a disc. Once you have it held, you have up to 5 hours to remove it from the kiosk in the library. After 5 hours it becomes available online again for the next person.

You are then allowed to keep the disc for three nights.

They do have older titles that are first-come-first-serve but, again, that is all timing and luck for any new titles.

This is exactly what I do today. I can't remember they last time I paid to rent a movie. It's also nice having it checked out for a week, so you don't have to worry about watching it the same night. Our library also carries Wii U, Xbox One, and PS4 games which you can also reserve online and check out for a week at a time. The library is one thing I don't mind paying taxes for

It's funny how libraries were created for renting books. Most people today however use them for renting movies and video games instead.

I really do wonder what the ratio of book rentals to movie/game rentals is at libraries.

The Canadian government probably told Redbox they would have to start renting at least 50% Canadian made movies in every Redbox location and Redbox refused.

I know it sounds a little crazy but the Canadian government can be a little wacky with stuff like this. I wouldn't be surprised.

Entertainment media evolves.

It wouldn't surprise me. Canadian radio stations, by law, have to play 35% Canadian content each hour.

Lots of Rush, Anne Murray, Nickelback and Alanis Morrisette!

I think libraries' acquisition of PS4, Xbox, et al games is an incredibly wasteful use of tax dollars, but oh well. Kids these days can't be bothered to read an actual book, it's too oldschool, retro, and unhip!

I do use my library to rent 'free' movies as well. It is great. But, I'm paying for it indirectly in my county tax dollars, so it'd be foolish not to avail myself of the privilege.

But, I also use my local libraries, as originally intended and, you, know, actually check out *books*. My ratio of books:movies is pretty much 1:1, maybe even in favor of books.