Best Buy partners with Sonic on digital movies

DIGITAL: Retailer to sell Roxio CinemaNow content on Web site, players

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 6/5/2009

JUNE 4 | DIGITAL: Best Buy is getting into the digital movie business through a partnership with Sonic Solutions to sell Roxio CinemaNow movies on the Best Buy Web site and on select devices sold in stores.

Neither company provided many details on the deal, which had been expected. The deal is for all CinemaNow content, so the Best Buy service will have new releases from all major studios. The partners declined to say when downloads will start on the Best Buy Web site, but the introduction is believed to be imminent.

Last month, Video Business first reported that Best Buy, the nation’s top electronics retailer, was in talks with Roxio CinemaNow and other digital companies to offer video downloads. The announcement comes a week after the retailer announced it was joining with Fuse Capital to fund the launch of a strategic equity investment fund to invest in startup companies developing digital movie, music and gaming applications.

“It’s the first step in continuing to move into the digital movie space,” Best Buy spokesman Justin Barber said of the Sonic deal. Best Buy joins fellow physical media retailers Netflix, Amazon and Blockbuster in the digital download business.

For Sonic, the partnership will expand the places the Roxio CinemaNow service is available, as the company works to create an ecosystem so consumers can buy a movie download and play it back on a number of devices, from mobile phones to the TV. (Sonic rebranded the service as Roxio CinemaNow as part of an initiative to brand all of its consumer services and products with the Roxio name.)

“The exposure Roxio CinemaNow gains through leading CE device manufacturers like LG and top retailers like Best Buy will help educate millions of consumers about the convenience and flexibility of digitally delivered video entertainment,” Sonic president and CEO Dave Habiger said in a statement announcing the deal.

In January, Sonic inked a multi-year deal with Blockbuster to create a joint service dubbed Blockbuster Powered by CinemaNow, which will deliver Blockbuster movies to a range of devices, from Blu-ray Disc players to iPhones.

As it competes against heavyweights Apple iTunes, Amazon and Netflix, Sonic has continued to aggressively expand the number of devices its movie service is available on. Just this week, LG Electronics shipped two Blu-ray players that deliver Roxio CinemaNow downloads.

Neither Sonic nor Best Buy officials would say which devices at Best Buy the Roxio CinemaNow service would be available on.