Best Buy (BBY) will be joining Vudu -- which was recently bought by Walmart (WMT) -- Netflix (NFLX), Roxio's CinemaNow, Amazon.com (AMZN) On Demand, and others in streaming video content directly over the Internet to your favorite television set. Details are sketchy so far, but the large question is this: do we need another one of these services? The market is already saturated. What's the benefit?

For one, Best Buy's Reward Zone Premier Solver members will receive one free video rental per month. That's quite a benefit for a customer that spends $2,500 per year at the largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S. -- not. You need to throw a bigger bone to these customers, Best Buy. That's like giving a dime back for every few hundred dollars spent. Not impressive.

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Best Buy to Unleash Yet Another Online Video Streaming Service originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Best Buy rewards loyal shoppers with heavy discounts originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Best Buy Co., Inc.'s (NYSE:BBY) "Reward Zone" in-store program rewards consumers with "points" based on dollar-amount purchases at its stores. It's part of an intense loyalty program the nation's largest retailer launched a few years ago.

It sounded great on paper. But upon closer personal experience with the system, the "rewards" are not that great compared to the amount of money one has to spend to actually see the "rewards." I'd prefer something a little nicer than a $50 DVD player if I were to drop a bundle on that plasma HDTV, for example.

But I may be getting my wish. The rewards are looking more opulent going forward. The retailer will be hosting a movie-themed sweepstakes exclusively for "Reward Zone" members that will feature a grand-prize trip for four to the Bahamas as a tie-in with the upcoming DVD release of the hit movie from Walt Disney, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

The DVD is released on December 5th and comes on the heels of a recent re-alignment of Best Buy's Reward Zone program. In September, Best Buy dropped the annual membership fee of $9.99 in lieu of a co-branded MasterCard offer that gives extra reward "points" to Reward Zone subscribers.

Best Buy "Rewards" program is getting more rewarding originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.