UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
| x | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
| For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002 |
OR
| ¨ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
| For the transition period from to |
Commission File Number 001-15153
BLOCKBUSTER INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| DELAWARE |
52-1655102 | |
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number) |
1201 Elm Street
Dallas, Texas 75270
(214) 854-3000
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number,
including area code, of registrants principal executive offices)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of Each Class |
Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered | |
| Class A Common Stock, $.01 par value per share |
New York Stock Exchange |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrants knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10K. x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes x No ¨
As of June 28, 2002, which was the last business day of the registrants most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the registrants common stock held by non-affiliates was about $927,815,244, based on the closing price of $26.90 per share of class A common stock as reported on the New York Stock Exchange composite tape on that date.
As of March 7, 2003, 35,669,228 shares of class A common stock, $.01 par value per share, and 144,000,000 shares of class B common stock, $.01 par value per share, were outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the proxy statement for the annual meeting of stockholders of the registrant to be held during 2003 are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.
INDEX TO FORM 10-K
| Page | ||||
| PART I |
||||
| Item 1. |
1 | |||
| Item 2. |
16 | |||
| Item 3. |
17 | |||
| Item 4. |
18 | |||
| PART II |
||||
| Item 5. |
Market for Our Common Equity and Related Stockholder Matters |
19 | ||
| Item 6. |
19 | |||
| Item 7. |
Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
29 | ||
| Item 7A. |
51 | |||
| Item 8. |
52 | |||
| Item 9. |
Changes In and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure |
84 | ||
| PART III |
||||
| Item 10. |
85 | |||
| Item 11. |
85 | |||
| Item 12. |
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters |
85 | ||
| Item 13. |
86 | |||
| Item 14. |
86 | |||
| PART IV |
||||
| Item 15. |
Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules, and Reports on Form 8-K |
87 |
PART I
BLOCKBUSTER OVERVIEW
Blockbuster Inc. is the worlds leading provider of rentable home movies and video games, with over 8,500 stores in the United States, its territories and 28 other countries as of December 31, 2002. During 2002, in order to take advantage of increasing consumer interest in retail product, in particular DVDs, we capitalized on the consumer traffic generated by our rental business, as well as our expansive store base, to enhance our position in the retail market. In addition, during 2002, our rental business continued to grow, reflecting our ability also to take advantage of the growing popularity of the DVD format as a rental product. The growth in our rental business also reflects increased maximization of our investment in rental product through sales of previously rented product. Our strategy to capitalize on both rental and retail opportunities resulted in record revenues for 2002 of $5.57 billion.
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Domestic Home VideoMovies
Consumer Spending. According to estimates of Kagan World Media, a Primedia Company, consumer spending for at-home movie viewing in the United States increased from about $22.0 billion in 2001 to about $24.4 billion in 2002 and is projected to increase to about $36.2 billion by 2007. The U.S. retail home video industry, which includes the sale and rental of movies on DVD and videocassette, or VHS, represented about $22.3 billion of the $24.4 billion in revenues during 2002. The remainder of the revenues were generated by pay-per-view and other specialized cable and satellite services.
Of the estimated $22.3 billion in revenues generated by the U.S. retail home video industry during 2002, about $13.6 billion was generated by sales of movies and about $8.7 billion was generated by rentals of movies. This compared to about $11.8 billion that was generated by sales of movies and about $8.5 billion that was generated by rentals of movies during 2001. The increased sales of movies reflects the generally lower pricing for DVDs discussed below under Studio Pricing to Home Video Retailers. The lower pricing has given consumers the option to purchase DVDs instead of, or in addition to, renting them and has enabled consumers to build libraries of classic movies and personal favorites.
Although, according to Kagan estimates, movie sales increased during 2002, rental transactions continued to exceed sales transactions, with rentals representing approximately 75.7% of total transactions and sales representing approximately 24.3% of total transactions. We believe rentals continue to provide a compelling proposition for consumers because movie rentals offer relatively low cost entertainment and because they provide consumers who are contemplating a purchase with an inexpensive opportunity to view a title prior to making a purchasing decision. In addition, we believe that the increasing market penetration of the DVD format beyond the typically more affluent early adopters will also continue to drive rental transactions due to the economic value associated with a rental. According to Kagan estimates, the number of U.S. DVD households increased from 24% of U.S. television households in 2001 to nearly 37% of U.S. television households by the end of 2002. Kagan projects that this will increase to over 57% of U.S. television households by the end of 2004 and to over 73% of U.S. television households by the end of 2007.
Kagan projects that the U.S. retail home video industry will decline somewhat as a percentage of overall consumer spending for at-home movie viewing; however, we believe that the DVD and VHS formats continue to be a preferred medium for at-home movie viewing. In particular, we believe that the DVD format will drive continued growth in the industry due to (i) its superior sound and picture quality and (ii) the additional home viewing features that it offers such as outtakes, director commentary, multiple language tracks and the ability to skip directly to scenes, rather than fast-forwarding and rewinding. We believe growth in the industry will also be driven by the increasing popularity of in-home theater systems and related enhanced viewing and sound capabilities.
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Studio Release Schedule to Home Video Retailers. A competitive advantage that the U.S. retail home video industry currently enjoys over most other movie distribution channels, except theatrical release, is the early timing of its distribution window. As discussed below under Movie Studio Dependence on the Retail Home Video Industry, the retail home video industry is a critical source of revenue to U.S. movie studios. In order to maximize this revenue, studios release their movies to different distribution channels at different points in time. The first distribution channel after theatrical release is home video on DVD and VHS. This distribution window is typically exclusive against most other forms of non-theatrical movie distribution, such as pay-per-view, video-on-demand, premium television, basic cable and network and syndicated television. The length of this exclusive distribution window for home video retailers varies, but has traditionally ranged from about 45 to 60 days for video retailers in the United States. Thereafter, movies are made sequentially available to television distribution channels.
Studio Pricing to Home Video Retailers. Studio pricing for movies that are released to home video retailers has historically been based on a studios decision to promote a movie either for (i) simultaneous sale and rental to the consumer at the beginning of the retail home video distribution window or (ii) primarily for rental at the beginning of the retail home video distribution window.
| | Sell-Through Pricing. Studios currently release substantially all DVD titles and an increasing percentage of VHS titles at what are commonly referred to as sell-through prices. Studios will release a movie title that is to be initially promoted for simultaneous sale and rental at a price to the home video retailer that is low enough to allow for an affordable sales price by the retailer to the consumer from the beginning of the retail home video distribution window. This sell-through pricing not only facilitates sales to consumers, it also facilitates the ability of a video retailer to purchase sufficient quantities of a title to satisfy consumer rental demand. |
| | Rental Pricing. Prior to the significant growth in the sell-through priced DVD format, studios typically promoted a significant portion of their VHS movie titles primarily for rental at the beginning of the retail home video distribution window. Studios will release a title that is to be promoted primarily for rental at a price to the home video retailer that is too high to allow for an affordable sales price by the retailer to the consumer at the beginning of the retail home video distribution window. As rental demand subsides, a studio will reduce pricing in order to then allow for reasonably priced sales to consumers. The initial period during which a movie is released with higher pricing is commonly referred to as the rental window. There has generally not been a rental window for DVDs. Although the studios have continued to release some VHS movies with a rental window, the fact that studios are releasing sell-through priced DVDs at the same time that they are releasing the same movies on VHS has reduced the significance of the rental window and has led to the increased sell-through pricing for VHS movies. |
We believe that the studios promotion of DVDs for simultaneous sale and rental from the beginning of the retail home video distribution window has served to accelerate consumer interest in the format. However, it has also served to increase competition from mass merchant retailers, as discussed under Cautionary StatementsCautionary Statements Relating to Our Video Store BusinessCurrent Studio Pricing Policies Have Resulted in Increased Competition from Mass Merchant Retailers, Which Has Affected, and Could Continue to Affect, Consumer Rental and Purchasing Behavior. We Cannot Control or Predict with Certainty Future Studio Decisions. Future Changes in Studio Pricing Could Negatively Impact our Profitability.
International Home VideoMovies
Some of the attributes of the home video industry outside of the United States are similar to those of the home video industry within the United States. For example, the major studios generally release movies outside of the United States according to sequential distribution windows. However, other attributes of the home video industry outside of the United States do not necessarily mirror the home video industry within the United States. For example, most countries have different systems of supply and distribution of movies, and competition in many of our international markets tends to be more fragmented. In addition, the laws of some countries currently allow studios to charge home video retailers more for VHS and DVD rental product than for sell-through
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product, which could serve to increase competition from mass merchant retailers. The potential impact of studio pricing decisions is discussed under Cautionary StatementsCautionary Statements Relating to Our Video Store BusinessCurrent Studio Pricing Policies Have Resulted in Increased Competition from Mass Merchant Retailers, Which Has Affected, and Could Continue to Affect, Consumer Rental and Purchasing Behavior. We Cannot Control or Predict with Certainty Future Studio Decisions. Future Changes in Studio Pricing Could Negatively Impact our Profitability.
Movie Studio Dependence on the Retail Home Video Industry
Of the many movies produced by major studios and released in the United States each year, relatively few are profitable for the studios based on box office revenues alone. According to Kagan estimates, the retail home video industry, which includes DVD and VHS sales and rentals, is the largest source of U.S. revenue to U.S. movie studios.
We believe that sales and rentals by home video retailers will continue to be a key source of revenues for the studios. In addition, we believe that rentals provide particular benefits to the studios, as video rental stores acquire and rent movies that did not generate significant revenues in the theatrical box office, thus providing the movie studios with a reliable source of revenue for movies that would not be as popular for purchase. We believe that consumers are more likely to view movies that were not box office hits through a rental than through most other post-theatrical distribution channels because
| | video rental stores provide a convenient opportunity to browse and make an impulse choice among a very broad selection of movie titles; |
| | the relatively low cost of a movie rental encourages consumers to rent movies they might not pay to view at a theater or desire to own; and |
| | to the extent a consumer is considering purchasing a title, renting offers the consumer a low cost opportunity to view a movie prior to making a purchasing decision. |
Retail Home Video Game Industry
The retail home video game industry has traditionally been affected by changing technology, short hardware and software lifecycles, frequent introduction of new products and the popularity, price and timing of new hardware platforms and software titles. The industry typically grows with the introduction of new hardware platforms and games, but tends to slow prior to the introduction of new platforms, as consumers hold back their purchases in anticipation of new platform and game enhancements. This pattern has been evidenced over the last three years. According to VSDA/VidTrac, domestic game rental revenues grew only 4.3% in 2000 and declined 31.0% in 2001, reflecting the impact of shortages of Sony PlayStation 2 hardware upon its release in the fourth quarter of 2000 and delayed launches of the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox hardware platforms to the fourth quarter of 2001. According to VSDA/VidTrac, domestic game rental revenues increased 13.9% in 2002, reflecting the impact of increased penetration of the new game platforms. According to The NPD Group, total U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories increased 10%, and video game software sales alone grew 21% from 2001 to 2002. We believe the game rental industry plays an important role in the video game cycle, due in part to the relatively high purchase prices for games software. Video games typically generate most of their rental revenue during the first twelve months after their release. We believe that during this time period, the difference between the retail price and the rental price of a new video game is typically high enough to make rentals an attractive alternative for customers.
3
OUR BUSINESS
General
Blockbuster is the worlds leading provider of rentable home movies and video games, with over 8,500 stores in the United States, its territories and 28 other countries as of December 31, 2002. According to research conducted for Blockbuster by Burke, Inc., our BLOCKBUSTER brand achieves nearly 100% recognition with active movie renters in the United States. This brand recognition and leading market position have allowed us to create one of the strongest entertainment franchises in the United States. During 2002, we achieved record revenues of $5.57 billion. Of these revenues, 78.9% were generated in the United States and 21.1% were generated outside of the United States. The year 2002 also represented the fifth consecutive year of growth in our same-store revenues.
During 2002, we continued to position Blockbuster as the complete and most convenient source for movies and games, whether for rental or for purchase, or for new or previously rented product. We increased our focus on the sale of new movies and games in order to complement our rental offering and thereby take advantage of the significant opportunities for incremental growth that are presented by the increasing consumer interest in purchasing product, in particular DVDs. Our increased focus on product sales was also designed to encourage consumers to frequent our business by providing them with more home video entertainment options than can be provided by the typical mass merchant retailer that only offers a purchase opportunity.
As part of our increased focus on product sales, we expanded our selection of movies and games software for sale. In particular, we capitalized on increased consumer interest in purchasing DVDs, through aggressive merchandising, and continued to increase our DVD merchandise as a percentage of our total movies merchandise. We also continued to expand our video games department to include a more comprehensive assortment of games for sale, as well as games accessories. During 2002, we rented and sold video games for use with Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2, Nintendo 64, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance.
The range of home video entertainment options that we are able to offer, in combination with our expansive store base, allows us to offer a combination of convenience and promotional activity that cannot be provided by a mass merchant retailer that offers retail alone. For example, we have the ability to offer promotions that combine movie rentals with sales of popular retail titles, which serves to drive both rental and retail traffic. During 2002, we offered movie pre-sales, which offered customers who purchased a multi-week rental card a free copy of a specified movie that was yet to be released on DVD or VHS. We also introduced Rent it! Like it! Buy it! a program designed to increase customer satisfaction with their purchases by offering a low cost alternative to view a movie prior to making a purchasing decision. Our rental business also enables us to sell previously rented product, which provides our customers with a lower-cost purchasing alternative.
As a result of our business initiatives during 2002, our revenues from movie and game sales increased 75.8% from 2001 to 2002. In addition, our rental revenues continued to grow, increasing 3.4% over 2001. Reflecting our increased focus on DVDs and games, DVD rental revenues increased from 18.5% of our total rental revenues in 2001 to 39.0% of our total rental revenues in 2002, and game rental revenues increased from 10.6% of our total rental revenues in 2001 to 11.9% of our total rental revenues in 2002.
During 2002, due to the additional flexibility that we have under our more recent purchasing arrangements with studios with respect to the disposition of rental product, we also increased our sales of previously rented movies. As a result, rental revenues generated by the eventual sale of previously rented movies increased 33.1%, which we believe reflects:
| | consumer interest in the value that we can offer by selling previously rented movies; and |
| | our resulting ability to maximize our investment in rental product. |
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This also reflects increased sales of previously rented DVDs, which we are able to sell at a higher price point than previously rented VHS movies because of the popularity and durability of the format.
Stores and Store Operations
Site Selection. We have developed a comprehensive model that we use to find suitable locations for company-operated and franchised stores. We seek to place stores in locations that are convenient and visible to the public. We also generally seek to locate our stores in geographic areas with population and customer concentrations that enable us to better allocate available resources and manage operating efficiencies in inventory management, advertising, marketing, distribution, training and store supervision. We use our extensive customer transaction and real estate databases to maximize revenues without significantly decreasing the revenues of our nearby stores. We also periodically examine whether the size and formats of our existing stores are optimal for their location and may adjust the size of, or relocate, existing stores as conditions require. Our franchise program provides us with an additional avenue for expanding our consumer reach. Outside the United States, in 2003, we plan to open most of our new company-operated stores in markets in which we already have a significant presence.
Within each targeted market, we identify potential sites for new and replacement stores by evaluating market dynamics, some of which include population demographics, psychographics, customer concentration levels and competition. We use our extensive real estate database and customer transaction database to continuously monitor market conditions and select strategic store locations.
Store Development. During 2002, we opened or purchased 630 company-operated stores (including 222 in the United States and 408 outside the United States). In December 2002, we purchased the 51% interest that we did not already own in our joint venture in Italy. As a result, the international store purchase number includes 165 stores that were previously operated by our joint venture in Italy. These stores were previously included in our franchise and joint venture category. During 2002, we also sold or closed 135 company-operated stores (including 97 in the United States and 38 outside the United States), for a net addition of 495 company-operated stores worldwide. We also opened or purchased 260 franchised stores (including 88 in the United States and 172 outside the United States) and closed, sold or transferred 191 franchised or joint venture stores (including 21 in the United States and 170 outside the United States, including the 165 stores previously operated by our joint venture in Italy), for a net addition of 69 franchised stores worldwide. Overall, on a worldwide basis, we had a net addition of 564 stores.
Store Operations. Our U.S. company-operated stores generally operate under substantially similar hours of operation. Domestic stores are generally open 365 days a year, with daily hours generally from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight. The hours of operation for franchised stores may vary depending on the franchise but, generally, the franchisees follow the store hours of our company-operated stores. Our U.S. stores employ an average of 14 people, including one store manager and one assistant store manager. International store operations vary by country.
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Store Locations. At December 31, 2002, in the United States and its territories, we operated 4,518 stores and our franchisees operated 1,048 stores. The following map sets forth the number of domestic stores we operated, including stores operated by our franchisees, as of December 31, 2002.
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At December 31, 2002, outside of the United States, we operated 2,389 stores, including 72 specialty games stores operating under the name Gamestation that we acquired in October 2002. In addition, our franchisees operated 590 stores outside of the United States. The following table sets forth, by country, the number of stores operated by us and by our franchisees as of December 31, 2002:
| COUNTRY (1) |
Number of Company-Operated Stores |
Number of Franchised Stores |
Total(1)(2) | |||
| Great Britain(3) |
779 |
|
779 | |||
| Canada |
389 |
|
389 | |||
| Australia |
122 |
237 |
359 | |||
| Mexico |
277 |
6 |
283 | |||
| Italy |
165 |
40 |
205 | |||
| Ireland (Republic) and Northern Ireland |
203 |
|
203 | |||
| Taiwan |
89 |
30 |
119 | |||
| Spain |
108 |
8 |
116 | |||
| Brazil |
|
97 |
97 | |||
| Argentina |
83 |
1 |
84 | |||
| Chile |
74 |
|
74 | |||
| Denmark |
72 |
|
72 | |||
| New Zealand |
|
28 |
28 | |||
| China (Hong Kong) |
24 |
|
24 | |||
| Thailand |
|
23 |
23 | |||
| Portugal |
|
18 |
18 | |||
| Colombia |
|
18 |
18 | |||
| Venezuela |
|
14 |
14 | |||
| Israel |
|
14 |
14 | |||
| Dominican Republic |
|
13 |
13 | |||
| Panama |
|
12 |
12 | |||
| Peru |
|
12 |
12 | |||
| El Salvador |
|
8 |
8 | |||
| Ecuador |
|
5 |
5 | |||
| Guatemala |
|
5 |
5 | |||
| Uruguay |
3 |
|
3 | |||
| Costa Rica |
|
1 |
1 | |||
| Norway |
1 |
|
1 | |||
| International Store Total |
2,389 |
590 |
2,979 | |||
| (1) | This does not include non-operating stores that are leased or owned. |
| (2) | In addition to the stores listed in the chart, as of December 31, 2002, there were 120 video vending machines in Great Britain and Spain. |
| (3) | Includes 72 Gamestation stores. |
Marketing and Advertising
We design our marketing and advertising campaigns to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace and thereby maximize our marketing and advertising expenditures. We obtain information from our customer transaction database, our real estate database and outside research agencies to formulate and adjust our marketing and advertising campaigns based on:
| | our market share in the relevant market; |
| | our level of store development and brand awareness relative to our competitors within the relevant market; |
7
| | our evaluation of new industry trends; |
| | local demographics; and |
| | other local competitive issues. |
This enables us to focus our resources in areas that generate the best return on investment.
Our large store base and leading brand awareness allow us to implement programs and promotions such as BLOCKBUSTER Rewards, BLOCKBUSTER Giftcards, cross-promotional marketing programs and national promotional events.
During 2002, we capitalized on our ability to offer promotions that combine movie rentals with sales of popular retail titles, thereby providing an alternative to the offerings that could be provided by a mass merchant retailer. For example, as discussed under General above, we offered movie pre-sales and introduced our Rent it! Like it! Buy it! program. During 2002, we also offered promotions such as rental passes and movie bundles. Customers who purchased a rental pass could rent an unlimited number of specified items during the term of the pass, subject to a limit on the number of items that could be taken at one time. The movie bundle allowed customers to rent multiple movies for one price.
Worldwide, in the year ended December 31, 2002, we incurred $249.2 million in advertising expenses, which includes $203.3 million in the United States and $45.9 million outside of the United States. In addition, some of our business alliances, including some of those with the studios, allow us to direct a significant amount of their home video advertising expenditures. During 2002, studios significantly increased their spending to advertise new DVD releases. We expect this trend to continue in 2003, which should allow us to decrease our advertising expenditures. In addition, as discussed under Management Information Systems below, we have recently completed a two-year effort to enhance our customer relationship management, or CRM, capabilities through the development of a fully integrated, comprehensive customer database and related CRM tools. We intend to use our enhanced capabilities to reduce our marketing spend by more effectively and efficiently using our customer transaction database for direct, one-to-one marketing activities.
International Operations
We are the leading international provider of rentable movies and video games. As of December 31, 2002, we had 2,979 stores operating under the BLOCKBUSTER brand and other brand names owned by us located in 28 markets outside of the United States. Of these stores, 590 were operated through our franchisees. In the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, we operate under the XTRA-VISION brand name due to its strong local brand awareness. In 2002, 21.1% of our worldwide revenues were generated outside the United States, compared to 20.0% in 2001 and 19.3% in 2000. Additional information regarding our revenues and long-lived assets by geographic area is included in Note 15 to our consolidated financial statements.
During 2002, our international operating results continued to grow, with every country accomplishing same-store revenues growth and Mexico and Ireland accomplishing double digit or near double digit same-store revenues growth. We also continued to expand our international presence. In October 2002, we acquired Games Station Limited, the second largest games retailer in the United Kingdom, which operates under the brand name Gamestation. Our Gamestation stores offer games trading in addition to traditional retailing. In addition, in December 2002, we purchased the 51% interest that we did not already own in our joint venture in Italy. This resulted in the addition of 165 company-operated stores and a corresponding reduction in our joint venture stores. During 2002, we also expanded our operations into the Dominican Republic and Norway.
Our global presence allows us to capitalize on opportunities worldwide, as we continue to extend our U.S. concepts to our international markets and vice versa. We believe this gives us an advantage over competitors that are solely dependent on their domestic business. For example, we have the opportunity to use our knowledge and experience from Gamestation in our markets around the world, including in the United States.
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We maintain offices for each major region and most of the countries in which we operate in order to manage, among other things, (i) store development and operations; (ii) marketing; and (iii) the purchase, supply and distribution of each stores products.
Franchised Operations
We believe our franchising program is an effective way to expand our consumer reach. At December 31, 2002, our franchisees operated 1,048 stores in the United States and 590 stores outside the United States. Under our current U.S. franchising program, we enter into a development agreement and subsequent franchise agreement(s) with the franchisee. Pursuant to the terms of a typical development agreement, we grant the franchisee the right to develop one or a specified number of stores at a permitted location or locations within a defined geographic area and within a specified time. We generally charge the franchisee a development fee at the time of execution of the development agreement for each store to be developed during the term of the development agreement. The typical franchise agreement is a long-term agreement that governs the operations of the store. We generally require the franchisee to pay us a one-time franchise fee and continuing royalty fees, service fees and monthly payments for, among other things, maintenance of our proprietary software. In addition, we provide optional programs and product and support services to our franchisees for which we sometimes receive fees. We require our franchisees to contribute funds for national advertising and marketing programs and also require that franchisees spend an additional amount for local advertising. Each franchisee has sole responsibility for all financial commitments relating to the development, opening and operation of its stores, including rent, utilities, payroll and other capital and incidental expenses. We cannot assure you that our franchisees will be able to achieve profitability levels in their businesses sufficient to pay our franchise fees. Furthermore, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in marketing and selling new franchises or that any new franchisees will be able to obtain desirable locations and acceptable leases.
Blockbuster.com
Our primary focus for our web site, blockbuster.com, is to support our stores and drive store revenues through promotional offers by means of features such as:
| | information about movies and games; |
| | promotion of in-store special offers; and |
| | suggestions of movies based upon a customers evaluation of selected movies. |
Suppliers and Purchasing Arrangements
We currently purchase most DVDs for our U.S. company-operated stores directly from the studios on a title-by-title basis through purchase orders. In addition, we continue to increase the percentage of our VHS product that we purchase in this manner. This is in contrast to our historical method for purchasing most VHS rental product through revenue-sharing arrangements. The increase in sell-through priced DVDs as a percentage of our product mix has decreased the significance of VHS, VHS revenue-sharing arrangements and the VHS rental window.
Prior to the significant growth in the sell-through priced DVD format, our VHS revenue-sharing arrangements required us to purchase a minimum quantity of most titles released by the studios. This was in exchange for minimal fixed payments by us and a share of our rental revenue from the product for a specified period of time. Revenue-sharing was significant due to the otherwise relatively high wholesale prices for VHS rental product, which made it difficult for home video retailers to purchase enough copies of these movies to satisfy consumer rental demand. The lower sell-through pricing for DVD product has enabled us to acquire significant quantities of product with or without revenue-sharing.
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We continue to acquire some VHS titles under revenue-sharing arrangements. For these titles, we share an agreed upon percentage of our U.S. VHS rental revenues with a studio for a limited period of time with generally more flexible terms overall than we experienced with prior revenue-sharing arrangements. In addition to this revenue-sharing component, each arrangement also provides for the method of disposition of the product at the conclusion of the rental period. We also obtain some DVD titles through revenue-sharing arrangements that allow us to share with a studio the up-front cost for the titles in exchange for the studios receipt of a share of our rental revenues from the product for a specified period of time. We continue to assess our various arrangements with the studios, and future arrangements could result in other changes in the DVD business model.
As in the United States, in our international markets, we purchase our movies on a title-by-title basis through purchase orders or through revenue-sharing or copy-depth arrangements. In addition, we acquire product through sub-wholesalers appointed by the studios to distribute the studios product in particular countries. Our purchasing arrangements vary by country depending on factors such as the availability of the rental window and the availability of revenue-sharing arrangements.
We purchase video game hardware and software, as well as VCRs, DVD players and other complementary products, from a variety of suppliers.
We require each franchisee to comply with guidelines that set forth the minimum amount and selection of movies to be kept in its stores inventory. Franchisees typically obtain movies from their own suppliers and are also responsible for obtaining some of the other complementary products from their own suppliers. However, if we have purchased the distribution rights to a movie or if a franchisee participates with us under our revenue-sharing arrangements, the franchisee may obtain the applicable product from us.
Distribution and Inventory Management
We receive substantially all of our movies and video games at our 850,000 square foot distribution center in McKinney, Texas. The distribution center is a highly automated, centralized facility that we use to mechanically repackage newly released movies to make them suitable for rental at our stores. We also use our distribution center to restock products and process returns, as well as to provide some office space. We use a network of third-party delivery agents for delivery of products to our U.S. stores. We ship our products to these delivery agents, located strategically throughout the United States, which in turn deliver them to our stores.
We believe our distribution center gives us a significant advantage over our competitors that use third-party distributors because we are able to process and distribute a greater quantity of products while reducing costs and improving services to our stores. The distribution center supports all of our company-operated stores in the United States and operates six days a week, 24 hours a day. As of December 31, 2002, we employed about 900 employees at our distribution center.
Franchisees generally obtain their products directly from their suppliers, except for some accessories and supplies and movies for which we have exclusive distribution rights, which domestic franchisees receive from our distribution center. In our international markets, our stores generally receive rental product directly from the studios. Retail product is generally distributed through a central warehouse for the market or through a third-party distributor.
Management Information Systems
We believe that the accurate and efficient management of purchasing, inventory and sales records is important to our future success. We maintain information, updated daily, regarding revenues, current and historical sales and rental activity, demographics of store customers and rental patterns. This information can be organized by store, region, state, country or for all operations.
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Most of our stores use our point-of-sale system. Our national point-of-sale system in the United States is linked with a data center located in our distribution center. The point-of-sale system tracks all of our products distributed from the distribution center to each U.S. store using scanned bar code information. All domestic rental and sales transactions are recorded by the point-of-sale system when scanned at the time of customer checkout. At the end of each day, the point-of-sale system transmits store data from operations to the data center and the customer transaction database.
We have recently completed a two-year effort to enhance our customer relationship management, or CRM, capabilities through the development of a fully integrated, comprehensive customer database and related CRM tools. The objective of this initiative is to better understand individual consumer home entertainment behaviors and needs in order to enhance the customer experience and establish and grow profitable relationships through targeted marketing efforts. The solution consists of a large database of customer and store level transaction information that can be used to analyze and predict consumer home entertainment behavior, an application to facilitate multi-channel communications such as direct mail and email with our customers, and an extensive reporting system for measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. With this new functionality, we hope to fully take advantage of the rich customer data that is generated from our business.
Competition
We operate in a highly competitive environment. We believe our most significant competition comes from (a) video stores and other retailers that rent or sell movies and/or games and (b) providers of direct delivery home viewing entertainment.
Competition with Video Stores and Other Retailers that Rent or Sell Movies and/or Games. These retailers include, among others:
| | local, regional and national video and game stores; |
| | mass merchant retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Best-Buy and Target; |
| | toy and entertainment retailers; |
| | supermarkets, pharmacies and convenience stores; and |
| | Internet sites. |
We believe that the principal factors we face in competing with video stores and other retailers that rent or sell movies and/or games are:
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