When One Blockbuster Closes, Another YouTube Channel Opens

According to Reuters, the news that YouTube is in talks with movie studios about setting up a paid movie rental service has hammered Blockbuster Inc.’s stock even further down. Netflix also took a hit — its stock fell 4% — but Blockbuster’s stock declined 10%. Since the already-healthy YouTube was bought by Google in October 2006, its traffic has exploded; over the same time frame, Blockbuster’s health has gone from bad to worse.

Observe, in fancy graph form:

Here’s a Quantcast graph of YouTube’s traffic from November 2, 2006 to July 31, 2009, followed by a Google Finance graph of Blockbuster Inc.’s stock price over the same time period.

This can’t be good news for Blockbuster Video, or as uproarious Family Guy might call it, “Lackluster Video.” If Tay Zonday drops a fresh new YouTube vid, it could just finish Blockbuster off.

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