WARNER BROS. SAYS BLOCKBUSTER MUST WAIT 28 DAYS, TOO

Warner Bros., which forces Redbox and Netflix to wait 28 days before they can rent out its films, will now apply that policy to Blockbuster, which has boasted that customers can rent the discs from its brick-and-mortar locations or from its website without having to wait those four weeks. Analysts observed that Warner Bros. may have put up with the no-wait ads while Blockbuster was struggling to keep its doors open, but now that it has been acquired by the DISH satellite service, it’s a different story. The London Financial Times reported that Blockbuster is circumventing the studio’s policy by buying up Warner’s DVDs at retail — presumably at discount outlets like Wal-Mart and Best Buy — in order to keep its no-wait policy in effect.