The story
The joint-venture Movielink was created in August 2001 by Paramount Pictures, Paramount Network Television, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Entertainment. Movielink was launched on November 12, 2002. Prices for viewing a movie ranged from $1.99 to $4.99.
The US Department of Justice Antitrust Division investigated Movielink in 2004 and found no monopoly issues with Movielink's distribution model. In April 2006, Brokeback Mountain was the first movie ever to be released in DVD and (legally) online at the same time, on Movielink.
On June 1, 2006, it was revealed that Movielink's owners were looking to sell the company. This came shortly after numerous studios announced their intent to work with a range of potential Movielink competitors, such as Amazon.com, Apple Computer, BitTorrent Inc., Jaman, and Microsoft Xbox. Netflix launched its streaming service in January 2007.
On August 8, 2007, Blockbuster purchased Movielink for $6.6 million. The acquisition gave Blockbuster a leading position in the emerging movie streaming arena almost overnight. It was announced that parts of the Movielink service would be migrated to blockbuster.com. Blockbuster CEO said "The popularity of (online rentals) convinced us that customers are ready for more convenient forms of digital delivery that we think Blockbuster can successfully enter."
On December 16, 2008, the Movielink website was shut down. The site was re-directed to the Blockbuster home page. Customers were notified 30 days in advance that all movies rented or purchased prior to the shutdown date must be downloaded by no later than 12/15/08 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time.
In January 2009, it was reported that, after beta-testing Movielink's technology on blockbuster.com, the test did not make it to production and Movielink's technology was trashed altogether, although Blockbuster kept Movielink's catalog deals.
From Wikipedia’s article on Movielink, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3