One of the nation's biggest sellers of DVDs is making a leap into movie downloading.
Best Buy recently announced its partnership with online video provider, CinemaNow, in a deal that will stream first-run DVDs directly to consumers. CinemaNow was one of the earliest online movie suppliers, with a library of over 20,000 titles, mostly consisting of new releases. Best Buy’s agreement will allow customers to buy or rent from CinemaNow’s library of content on connected consumer electronics sold through Best Buy retail stores. This movie downloading service will be integrated into most internet-connected electronics sold at the store.
Essentially, this is the idea: you must pay once for a DVD, then you are able to play it on any connected device, be it a television, Blu-ray player, PC, or smartphone. Ultimately, this service will also serve as a means to leverage digital copies to bridge the physical and digital stream worlds. Facing an industry-wide decline in sales of physical media such as DVDs and CDs, Best Buy has been making an aggressive push into digital delivery. The partnership with CinemaNow, which is expected to launch late this year or in early 2010, marks a companion move in online movies and comes at a time when DVD sales are down in comparison to previous years.
Legal movie downloads have been available for about a decade, but the business has been impeded by high prices and limitations on availability and consumers' ability to play video on different devices. Best Buy’s top priority is to make the distribution of online movies simpler for the consumer, allowing them to play movies on multiple devices and eliminating some of the limitations that exist with other companies in the market.