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One of the more prominent emerging trends for streaming video services is the integration of social media with film streaming, something zombie movie rental chain Blockbuster is venturing into with kingpin social network Facebook.
Between 8,000 and 10,000 of Blockbuster’s titles will be available on Facebook through Blockbuster’s offical page, with features like adding film reactions and viewing the commentary of friends in a format that is described as somewhat like that of VH1’s pre-social media show Pop-Up Video. (If you’re too young to remember the show, it involved playing popular videos of the day with sarcastic commentary appearing scattered throughout the screen, much like following the reactions to a clip on Twitter.)
Variety quoted Blockbuster’s head of corporate and digital development, Neil Davis. Davis said:
“For us it’s a matter of optionality and making it available… We know the crowd sourcing is becoming more important when it comes to what people watch and buy,” so the company wanted to make sure it gave viewers a choice of how much they want to interact with the films they watch.
Although “the crowd sourcing” sounds a bit like “the internets,” the service could really take off in cementing real-time and social film sharing. (Not to mention a lot of users are still a bit miffed at Netflix over the price hike brouhaha.) Would you go back to Blockbuster to watch movies with friends on Facebook?
