Velocity Marks Halfway Point In 4,000 Screen Rollout On Redbox DVD Rental Units

December 3, 2021 by Dave Haynes

Probably like many to most people, I kind of assumed the DVD and gaming rental business was largely a thing of the past, and people just streamed movies and downloaded games. But a company called Redbox has some 4,000 vending machine stations across the U.S. – half now that have digital signage screens that promote offers and run booked advertising.

The screen component of the vending stations is operated, supported and sold by the managed services company Velocity, which has taken the interesting and somewhat unique path of expanding from conventional IT services into also being a media owner and media sales company.

Velocity put out PR this week noting that it has “deployed digital video signage on the top of over 2,000 kiosks across the US, with nearly 4,000 expected total installations.”

The new video screens, says the PR, provide a “powerful new way to partner with Hollywood studios to promote new release movies, its rapidly growing free streaming service, as well as provide advertising opportunities for national and hyper-local media campaigns that will be seen by millions of consumers in high traffic locations.”

The Redbox relationship was initiated by Velocity’s acquisition last year of Impax Media, a media start-up doing an ad-driven checkout aisle screen network.

“The addition of Velocity screens gives us a powerful new way to promote new release titles with our content partners including all major Hollywood studios, as well as provide brands and studios a uniquely customizable out of home campaign, while also promoting our free streaming service and Redbox Entertainment originals in high trafficked locations,” says Galen Smith, CEO, Redbox. “We’ve already seen success with the screens we’ve tested to date, and we’re excited to see this quickly scale and potentially grow to additional kiosks in the future.”

“Velocity has been very bullish on the retail sector and is continuously seeking additional partnerships to grow within the industry. We are proud to partner with Redbox to deliver an industry-leading digital signage solution to enhance and elevate the existing Redbox kiosks,” says Greg Kiley, Chairman and CEO of Velocity. “Redbox is a formidable presence in the retail space, especially in national grocery stores. We look forward to helping Redbox expand its advertising capabilities.”

Direct ad sales for the new screens are handled by Redbox in partnership with Screenvision, and through connected programmatic exchanges. 

I did a podcast recently with JohnMcCauley of Velocity:

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