Blockbuster, a Dish Network company, will be shutting down its remaining 300 stores in the United States.
"Over the past 18 months, Blockbuster has divested itself of assets in the United States, as well international assets, including operations in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. DISH will continue to support Blockbuster's domestic and international franchise operations, relationships and agreements," Dish said in a news release.
According to the company's news release, the retail chain will shut down their stores by early January 2014.
"This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment," Dish Chief Executive Officer Joseph Clayton said in the statement. "We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings."
Dish acquired Blockbuster after it filed for bankruptcy in 2011, according to Bloomberg News. Since then, the company has shut down 1,7000 stores.
Blockbuster was origninally owned by Viacom Inc. in 2004, and had about 9,000 stores across the U.S. before Netflix Inc. "devastated the industry," Bloomberg reports. Dish will continue to you the brand for its services including video streaming products online, according to the release:
"The Blockbuster Home service offers over 15 movie channels including STARZ Cinema, EPIX, Sony Movie Channel, and Hallmark Movie Channel, plus over 20,000 movies and TV shows streamed to TVs, computers or iPads. The service includes access to the Blockbuster Home 'app' currently available to the millions of TVs served by DISH's Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR set-top box.
"Available to anyone, Blockbuster On Demand is a transactional streaming video service offering thousands of movies viewable on connected devices including PCs, tablets, smartphones, Slingbox, Roku and select Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players."
For more information about what services Blockbuster will continue to offer, click here.
