Funai to bake CinemaNow into inexpensive electronics
DIGITAL: Web-connected components could reach more mass audience via Walmart
By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 10/15/2009
OCT. 15 | DIGITAL: Sonic Solutions struck a deal with a Japanese consumer electronics company that will bring its CinemaNow movie service to new connected HDTVs and Blu-ray Disc players expected to be carried in Walmart.
Japan-based Funai Electric Co., maker of HDTVs and Blu-ray players for Sylvania, Philips, Magnavox and Emerson, said it will offer CinemaNow movie downloads through a broad range of connected devices it plans to roll out soon.
Funai isn’t a name known by most consumers, but many of its consumer electronics are sold through Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, at discount prices.
Hideaki Funakoshi, Funai general manager of the DVD division, AV Management HQ, said the relationship is key to “addressing the emerging market demand for direct access to Internet movie downloads from connected devices.”
Funai hasn’t said whether the players will be in stores this fourth quarter.
The deal will bring Sonic’s CinemaNow store to dozens more consumer electronics devices and will undoubtedly bring connected electronics to a more mass audience via Walmart.
“It certainly does bring us a much broader reach into the marketplace,” Sonic executive VP of strategy Mark Ely said.
Sonic, like other digital services, has partnered with a number of HDTV and Blu-ray manufacturers over the last year to deliver movies directly to TVs. CinemaNow downloads are already available through LG Blu-ray players, and Ely said the company is “encouraged” by early attach rates. Ely predicted that within the next year, digital sales through connected devices will eclipse those done through CinemaNow’s Web site. Most of those sales to connected devices are for rentals. Ely estimated rentals account for 70% to 80% of transactions.
Sonic also sells digital movies from Disney through TiVo players and handles the backend for Blockbuster On Demand, which was made available this week on TiVos, Samsung Blu-ray players and HDTVs.
