Company type | Public (OTCBB) |
---|---|
Industry | Rental |
Founded | 2004 |
Fate | Defunct 2008 |
Headquarters | Franklin, Kentucky |
Key people | John F. Fleming, CEO/President |
Products | DVD-by-mail |
Revenue | US$931,000 (2008) [1] |
US$-1.1 million (2008) [1] | |
Number of employees | 1 (2008) [1] |
Website | www.gameznflix.com [ dead link ] |
GameZnFlix was a DVD-by-mail subscription service offering flat rate rental of home videos and video games to customers in the United States. On September 6, 2007, the company did a 1:1000 reverse split of its stock and changed its ticker symbol from "GZFX" to "GMZN." [2] The company's home page went dark in November 2008. [3]
GameZnFlix operated in much the same fashion as other DVD-by-mail subscription services such as Netflix, although it rented both movies and video games and thus also competed with game-only services such as GameFly. Subscribers could also buy selected DVDs or games at a reduced price, should they choose to keep the movie or game. GameZnFlix also acted as a traditional online retailer and offered new copies of DVDs and video games for sale. [4]
Circuit City (now defunct) offered one month prepaid subscriptions of GameZnFlix for new customers, and gift certificates that could be sent to friends and family. [5]
GameZnFlix offered online rental of video games for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii and movies in DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc formats. They did not offer cartridge-based gaming formats such as those used for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.
GameZnFlix offered three monthly subscription plans, which allowed the customer 1, 2, or 3 video games or movies at a time. All plans were of the unlimited variety. 14-day free trials of most of the plans were available with a restricted selection of titles.
Members of the U.S. military received discounted pricing (roughly 10% off) on these plans, and GameZnFlix shipped to foreign military bases through the APO/FPO military mail service.
According to the last available SEC filings, GameZnFlix discontinued operations in the video rental business in November 2008. The filing states that the company will look for other business ventures to be acquired. The company had net losses of $1.1 million on revenue of $931,000 in 2008 versus losses of over $10 million on revenue of $3.6 million in 2007. [1]
According to the GameZnFlix 2007 Annual Report, the company used warehouses in Colorado and Kentucky to service its customers. [6]
From February 2004 through the 2005 Super Bowl GameZnFlix maintained a television advertisement campaign, some of which featured the actor Ben Curtis (best known as "The Dell Dude" in advertisements for Dell, Inc.).
A pilot marketing program with electronics retailer Circuit City from November 2005 to March 2006 was extended to a full co-marketing agreement with all US stores offering prepaid subscriptions and other promotional efforts by Circuit City (flyers, online, etc.). All stores were participating as of December 2006. [7]
Throughout 2006, GameZnFlix sponsored of a bicycle racing team in and around Tennessee and several watercraft competitions throughout the United States. They increased Internet advertising with Internet service providers and started an affiliate program. They also teamed up with McDonald's and ClickCaster in a cross-country series of promotional events featuring tour buses, Ridge Racer 6 gaming competitions, outdoor movie showings, and other activities. Other tie-ins included Circuit City stores, ClickCaster broadcasts from on-site locations, and contributions to the Ronald McDonald House and other local charities.
From the GameznFlix 2008 Annual Report – Item 3. Legal Proceedings: [8]
Eight months after shutting down its DVD and game rental website (without notice to customers), GameznFlix announced that it has changed its corporate name to TBC Global News Network, Inc. and their stock trading symbol to TGLN. The change is to reflect a change in its business model from Online Video Rental to become a media organization concentrating on news and information about the second and third tier of American business. [9]
GameznFlix CEO John Fleming states "Between CNBC, Fox Business Network and Bloomberg, the market is pretty well saturated with information about Fortune 500 companies. We intend to focus on the companies you rarely hear about, those trading on the NASDAQ Small Cap, OTCBB, Pink Sheets and some interesting privately held firms that aren't publicly traded at all."
In October 2015, the company changed its name once again to InCapta Inc (stock symbol INCT). [10]
Kazaa Media Desktop. was a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequently under license as a legal music subscription service by Atrinsic, Inc., which lasted until August 2012.
A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously viewed movies and/or new, unopened movies.
Blockbuster Video was an American video rental store chain. It was founded by David Cook in 1985 as a stand-alone mom-and-pop home video rental shop, but later grew into a national store chain featuring video game rentals, DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and cinema theater. The company expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster employed 84,300 people worldwide and operated 9,094 stores.
Flix is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Showtime Networks, a subsidiary of Paramount Global operated through its Paramount Media Networks division. Its programming consists solely of theatrically released motion pictures released from the 1970s to the present day, interspersed with some films from the 1950s and 1960s.
Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as television shows and films, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable television, and/or satellite television systems.
On2 Technologies, formerly known as The Duck Corporation, was a small publicly traded company, founded in New York City in 1992 and headquartered in Clifton Park, New York, that designed video codec technology. It created a series of video codecs called TrueMotion.
Redbox Automated Retail, LLC is an American video on-demand streaming and video rental company specializing in DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD rentals and purchases and formerly video games via automated retail kiosks and TVOD, AVOD and FAST services via its website, Android and iOS apps and many consumer electronic devices. Redbox kiosks feature the company's signature red color and are located at convenience stores, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, mass retailers, and pharmacies.
The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) is a bill that was passed by the United States Congress in 1988 as Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 100–618 and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It was created to prevent what it refers to as "wrongful disclosure of video tape rental or sale records" or similar audio visual materials, to cover items such as video games and the future DVD format. Congress passed the VPPA after Robert Bork's video rental history was published during his Supreme Court nomination and it became known as the "Bork bill". It makes any "video tape service provider" that discloses rental information outside the ordinary course of business liable for up to $2500 in actual damages.
DVDEmpire.com is a DVD retail sales website. It is a privately owned company based near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The retailer began operating in the mid-1990s.
GameFly is a privately held American online video game rental subscription service that specializes in providing games for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft systems starting from the sixth generation onwards.
DVD-by-mail is a business model in which customers rent DVDs and similar discs containing films, television shows, video games and the like, ordering online for delivery to the customer by mail. Generally, all interaction between the renter and the rental company takes place through the company's website, using an e-commerce model. Typically, a customer chooses from a list of titles online and adds titles to a queue. As a customer's requested titles become available, the company sends them out. When the customer is finished with the disc, they mail it back to the company.
LoveFilm was a United Kingdom–based provider of DVD-by-mail and streaming video on demand in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany.
Video Professor, Inc. was an American company that developed and marketed tutorials for a variety of computer-related subjects, such as learning to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Windows, and eBay. Video Professor was founded in 1987 by John W. Scherer and was located in Lakewood, Colorado. It was known in the U.S. for its commercials and infomercials on late night television and print ads almost daily in USA Today and other nationally-distributed newspapers. The company has been the subject of controversy regarding its sales and billing practices, as well as lawsuits it has filed against online critics of the company.
Internet television in Australia is the digital distribution of movies and television content via the Internet. In Australia, internet television is provided by a number of generalist, subscription-based streaming service providers, in addition to several niche providers that focus on specific genres. Australia's five major free-to-air television networks also all offer catch up TV of previously broadcast content to watch via their webpages and apps, and a number of ISPs and other companies offer IPTV – the live streaming of television channels sourced from Australia and elsewhere.
RealNetworks LLC is a provider of artificial intelligence and computer vision based products. RealNetworks was a pioneer in Internet streaming software and services. They are based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The company also provides subscription-based online entertainment services and mobile entertainment and messaging services.
Lane vs. Facebook was a class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California regarding internet privacy and social media. In December 2007, Facebook launched Beacon, which resulted in users' private information being posted on Facebook without the users' consent. Facebook ended up terminating the Beacon program and created a $9.5 million fund for privacy and security. There was no monetary compensation awarded to Facebook users affected negatively by the Beacon program.
Harris v. Blockbuster, Inc., 622 F. Supp. 2d 396, established precedent in the district that when a contract has a clause that authorizes one party to make changes to the "contract" without notification, that it is illusory and hence the entire "contract" is void.
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. v. Redd Horne, Inc., 749 F.2d 154 was a copyright infringement case of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit over the playing video cassettes in-store of a video sale and rental store. The appeals court affirmed the decision of the district court to grant the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and enjoin defendants from exhibiting plaintiffs' copyrighted motion pictures.
Warner Bros. Entertainment v. WTV Systems is a 2011 copyright infringement case decided in United States District Court, C.D. California.
Video City was an Australian home video rental business that offered titles on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray, as well as console video games, for rent. At its peak, Video City operated 26 stores nationally; 21 in Tasmania, with a further five stores located across Victoria and Queensland.