Overstock.com to launch video on demand and video streaming services in mid 2015
Alex Ben Block / Hollywood Reporter :
Context & Ripple Effects
Overstock.com's move puts it in the same lane as a string of non-traditional entrants racing into video around this period: Redbox building a digital VOD store, Vimeo planning a Netflix-style paid service, and Hulu sketching a live-TV bundle all follow within roughly two years. The through-line is that streaming had become cheap enough to bolt onto an existing consumer business rather than require a media company.
First-order effects
- Overstock.com's shoppers gain a second reason to visit the site beyond discount retail, with the company taking on content-licensing costs and a subscription or transactional revenue line it has never run before.
Second-order effects
- Rights holders gain yet another bidder at the licensing table as Redbox, Vimeo, Fullscreen, and Overstack-scale retailers chase catalog content, tightening supply and pricing for older TV series and films.
Third-order effects
- The relationship trail shows why these side bets matter less than core strategy: Overstock.com subsequently pivoted hard into bitcoin-based stock issuance and the tZERO token exchange, so streaming entries by non-media firms often end up abandoned when the parent's economics shift — a caution data point in the broader land-grab pattern.
The trend: Streaming became a default feature of any consumer-facing platform in the mid-2010s, with retailers and kiosk operators rushing in ahead of the consolidation that later thinned the field.