http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355146,00.asp
11.03.09 Post a Comment by Chloe Albanesius Best Buy is teaming up with Sonic Solutions to provide customers on-demand access to streaming movies and TV shows. Best Buy will embed Sonic's Roxio CinemaNow technology on a number of devices, like web-connected TVs, portable media players, PCs, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, and mobile phones. This will include a variety of manufacturers, Best Buy said, but the store did not reveal any specific companies at this time. The multi-year agreement allows Best Buy to license Sonic's technology to make its on-demand digital content delivery a standard feature on connected devices. As part of the deal, Best Buy purchased an undisclosed number of Sonic common stock. When the service is in place, Best Buy customers can buy or rent from the CinemaNow catalogue, which includes access to new movies, TV shows, independent films, and older catalogue films. Some of those movies will likely be available on the same day as their DVD release, Best Buy said. Both companies said they also plan to work with movie studios on "new service and content offerings" but did not elaborate. "Our relationship with Sonic Solutions allows Best Buy to quickly establish a strong position in the digital delivery of video entertainment," Brian Dunn, chief executive of Best Buy, said in a statement. "It also enables us to make deeper and more meaningful connections with our customers and expand our relationships with content owners and hardware vendors to create compelling new home entertainment solutions." "With Best Buy's focus, we expect on-demand entertainment to quickly grow into a mass market activity, with digital sell-through and rental becoming a significant new revenue stream for content owners," said Dave Habiger, president and chief executive of Sonic Solutions, in a statement. In July, TiVo announced that it was teaming up with Best Buy to offer TiVo-brand digital video recorders that integrate Best Buy content. *********************************** * POST TO [email protected] * *********************************** Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
