Blockbuster to offer Blu-ray throughout stores

DALLAS Blockbuster will now offer Blu-ray movies for rent and sale across its stores in the United States and Canada. The retailer will still offer standard DVDs for rent and sale.

The company will draw attention to the Blu-ray availability through special kiosks that will feature a 42-inch high-definition TV with movies playing via a PLAYSTATION3 console.

Online subscribers will now be able to specify they only want to receive movies in the Blu-ray format.

"Blockbuster was the first national retailer to accurately recognize and react to consumers' preference for this format when we added Blu-ray discs to a large percentage of our stores last summer," said David Podeschi, Blockbuster senior vp of merchandising, distribution and logistics. "Now, with this national rollout, we believe Blockbuster is perfectly positioned to drive consumer adoption of this next generation DVD format and to become the customer's headquarters when it comes to renting or buying Blu-ray movies, whether in-store or online."