Supermarket giant Tesco has launched a film and TV downloads service to rival Apple's iTunes store.The online shop will enable customers to download movies and television programmes made by Sony Pictures and Warner Bros, including Spider-Man 3 and Superbad.
Customers will initially only be buy movies and programmes, with TV shows starting from �1.87, new release films for �10.97 and cinema classics for �6.97. Tesco said it aims to roll out a rental service in the coming months.
The launch of the film and television store builds on the music download service already offered by Tesco through its Tesco Digital online store. By the end of the year, all tracks sold through the site will be available in the universal MP3 format, meaning they can be played on a host of music players, including iPods.
"We said back in April when we launched our site that "Our aim for the Tesco Digital site is for it to be more than just a music download portal," said Graham Harris, Tesco's commercial director. "We wanted to create an exciting and easy-to-use entertainment shop that Tesco customers of all technical ability can use and trust. This next development confirms we are doing just that."
Tesco said that the library of films and TV shows available for download would increase in the coming weeks as "further partners" signed up to the scheme.
The launch of the download service pits Tesco in direct competition with Apple, whose iTunes store is the most popular source for legal music and movie downloads in the UK. The iTunes store offers users the chance to rent or buy movies from most of the major studios, with new releases costing in the region of �10.99.
Digital downloads are viewed by many retailers as a crucial new battlefront in the effort to arrest declining sales of traditional media, such as CDs and DVDs.
"Tesco is the second largest DVD retailer in the UK, but this strong position in the physical market is unlikely to be replicated in the digital sector," warned Sarah Johnson, an analyst at Screen Digest. "Tesco Digital's lack of device strategy will act as a major obstacle to adoption. The two services dominating the UK transactional online video market, Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's Xbox Live Video Marketplace, are tightly bound to a device.
"If Tesco does integrate its digital store with its core business in this way and quickly develops a clear hardware strategy it is likely to avoid the fate of digital stores from other high profile retailers. If Tesco could bundle its digital store into Freeview set-top boxes, the service would rapidly grow a substantial presence in UK homes, with the ability to deliver digital content directly to the television screen."
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