Blockbuster Eyes Digital Movies

Blockbuster's CEO gave hints in a conference call Thursday that the company may be looking at ways to digitize its business through online rentals or digital delivery. This follows a tough 2005, where the company faced increasing pressure from online DVD rental service Netflix.

Blockbuster is already an investor in the online video service CinemaNow, however CEO John Antioco said a profitable business model has yet to emerge in that space. Thus, any first move outside of its standard in-store rental business would likely be to some Netflix-like scenario.

The two companies engaged in a price war last year, spending over a quarter billion dollars to advertise their services. Antioco said Blockbuster did not plan to relax its spending, promising that aggressive marketing plans would continue.

"We want as many subscribers as we can get and we are going to be aggressive in getting as many subs as we can," he said.

According to figures provided by Blockbuster, online rentals will expand to 20 million households by the end of the decade, with in-store revenue falling some 25 percent during that same time period. Even with the decline in store revenues, Blockbuster would continue to work at expanding its market share in the space, Antioco added.