Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH)'s integration with Blockbuster Inc. and resulting super-bundle of sorts doesn't set out to deck an already reeling Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) (at least not yet), but it will instead be wielded against its cable rivals, aiming to jolt Dish's sagging pay TV subscriber base.

Blockbuster Movie Pass, introduced Friday at a San Francisco event, is the first integrated product out of Dish's five-month-old purchase of Blockbuster. It will bundle several services, including video streaming to PCs and to connected set-tops, by-mail DVDs and games, and several premium TV channels. Here's what Dish is packing into Blockbuster Movie Pass:

Dish will start selling Blockbuster Movie Pass on Oct. 1 for $10 per month as an add-on; it also comes bundled for new customers that take the roughly $40-per-month America's Top 200 package and commit to staying with Dish for two years. The $10 per month lets you rent one DVD at a time; there'll be $15 and $20 tiers that allow more.



Why this matters
Dish is transforming from a satellite TV giant into a multiplatform entertainment company. It's looking for this new package to help shore up its pay-TV base, which shrank by 135,000 subscribers in the second quarter, and to out-bundle competitors such as Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV)

As with Dish's earlier acquisition of Sling Media Inc. , Blockbuster's reach will extend beyond just Dish. Blockbuster President Michael Kelly said a broadly offered subscription streaming package is in the works, one that could take on Netflix directly -- but he didn't say when it might arrive.

For more
Get caught up on Dish and Blockbuster.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable