Best Buy's new movie download service will launch by June 1 with a familiar name: CinemaNow.
After diddling over what to call its new offering for months, the electronics retailing giant turned to its back-end software services provider on the initiative, Sonic Solutions, which purchased the 11-year-old movie-download brand in 2008
The site will be redesigned to reflect its association with Best Buy by the end of the month, a spokesperson told TheWrap.
This month Best Buy customers will be able to begin buying or renting digital movies and TV shows on an á là carte basis directly to Blu-ray players and HDTVs from LG Electronics.
The downloads also will be accessible on most computers. The service will launch on devices from other manufacturers such as Insignia later this year.
The move is a proactive one for the chain. As more and more viewers migrate away from physical discs and in the direction of online retail companies such as iTunes and Amazon, Best Buy is facing stiffer competition.
Most importantly, it will help them stave off digital incursions from the other bricks and mortar giant, Wal-Mart, which bought online entertainment provider VuDu in February.
The new site will be available through a strategic partnership with Sonic Solutions that was previously announced last November. The website, which is powered by RoxioNow, will have several new release titles available on the same day that they go on sale -- a boon in this age of release windows and a key advantage over Netflix which does have to honor a 28 day delay.
