dvd

Today's pinched budgets mean many American families can%u2019t shell out as much as they once did to send teenagers to the movies. But there's a more affordable way to keep young people entertained: Soup up your home theater and screen some teen-friendly classics.

Blockbuster on Monday kicked off the confidential auction process that will decide its future. Billionaire Carl Icahn and others have bid for the troubled video-rental chain.

Netflix, whose DVD-by-mail service hastened the demise of several video rental chains, may soon find itself under siege from Amazon. The world's largest online retailer appears to be on the verge of launching its own unlimited movie and TV-show streaming service.

Netflix angered customers this week by removing the option to order DVDs via videostreaming consoles and mobile devices. The news that it was eliminating the "Add to DVD Queue" button in order to focus more on streaming videos has drawn thousands of comments, many critical of the company.

In its transition from mail-order DVDs to streaming video, Netflix's latest move -- a new plan that offers unlimited downloads and no DVDs for $7.99 per month -- highlights why the company has been so successful.

Coinstar, the parent of Redbox self-service DVD-rental machines, said second-quarter profit fell less than analysts expected and that forecast 2011 sales would exceed analysts' estimates.

Netflix said it boosted profit by 26% in the third-quarter. The largest U.S. DVD-by-mail service gained new subscribers by expanding its digital and packaged-media offerings.

Apple's iPad launch earlier this year was the most successful tech-gadget debut ever, blowing away previous success stories like the iPhone and the DVD player, according to Bernstein Research analyst Colin McGranahan.

Netflix says it mistakenly coached extras used in a corporate video to tell the Canadian media how enthusiastic they were about the company's videostreaming service, which launched in Canada this week.

It's easy to blame Blockbuster's collapse, which culminated Thursday in a voluntary Chapter 11 filing, on the rise of streaming Internet video and kiosk rental options. But Netflix faced the same threats and it's thriving. So what did Netflix do smarter than its bankrupt rival?