Best Buy said it has entered into a multi-year agreement to license Sonic Solutions’ Roxio CinemaNow technology. Under terms of the agreement, Best Buy acquired warrants enabling it to purchase shares of Sonic Solutions common stock.

The new service, which is yet to be named, will allow users to access content including new movies, TV shows, independent films, and older catalog titles on a variety of devices. Best Buy said new titles will often be available on the same day they become available on DVDs in retail stores.

The new offering from Best Buy will be competing with the likes of other online movie services from Amazon.com, Netflix and Apple’s iTunes Store.

"Our relationship with Sonic Solutions allows Best Buy to quickly establish a strong position in the digital delivery of video entertainment," said Brian Dunn, CEO of Best Buy.

"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."

A launch date for the new service has not been announced.

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The two companies are working with a number of consumer electronic manufacturers, including Sonic’s CinemaNow, to expand the ecosystem of interoperable devices offering the Blockbuster service.

The devices will include PCs, portable media players, Blu-ray Disc players, set-top boxes, mobile phones and Internet -connected television sets.

Jim Keyes
Blockbuster Chairman and CEO

The two companies will make their digital libraries of content available under the Blockbuster brand offering 10,000 premium films and 40,000 digital titles.

"Blockbuster is a ubiquitous entertainment presence in the physical world. Through this alliance with Sonic, we plan to become a ubiquitous presence in the digital world as well. Our goal is to offer consumers the most digital content, the most accessibility, via the most devices, both in- and out of home," said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster Chairman and CEO.

Sonic’s device ecosystem, powered by its CinemaNow SDK (software development kit), will help streamline the introduction of Blockbuster’s digital entertainment service into a variety of consumer electronic devices.

"With more and more broadband-enabled consumer electronics hitting the market, there is a growing need for a service that gives consumers access to premium entertainment on any device, anytime and anywhere," said Dave Habiger, president and CEO, Sonic Solutions.

The new Blockbuster service will be available in the second quarter of this year, pricing details have not been announced.
 

According to the survey downloading movies is more convenient and environmentally friendly then driving to a local video store. Sixty-four percent said the biggest advantage of downloading online was not having to drive to get a movie or wait for a movie in the mail.

"With the hike in gas prices, it’s not surprising that a significant number of movie-lovers are changing old habits like driving down to the local video store," said Ashley Woodworth, senior vice president of marketing, CinemaNow.

The survey found the adoption of digital sharing features such as streaming to an IP-enabled TV or loading content onto an MP3 player lags in comparison to burning DVDs. More than half (51%) of Americans say they have tried burning digital movies onto a DVD compared to 18 percent who have tried connecting them to set-top-boxes or a cable box.
 

Companies like Apple and Microsoft should be happy with the announcement from six Hollywood studios that movies will go on sale for download this week. The terms of usage for movies downloaded from MovieLink or CinemaNow can only be played on a television if it his connected to a home network, a CNN report said.

Well, maybe not Apple. Visiting MovieLink with a non-Internet Explorer browser throws the site into a paroxysm of digital rage. “Sorry, but in order to enjoy the Movielink service you must use Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, which supports certain technologies we utilize for downloading movies. Click here to get the latest version of Internet Explorer.”

We think MovieLink and its supporting studios, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and MGM, read SecurityProNews.com from time to time. They may wish to discover some reasons why IE may not be the browser of choice for some users.

CinemaNow, supported by Lions Gate and Sony (in a bit of bet-hedging on the latter’s part), at least renders its home page in Firefox and Opera browsers.

Pricing for downloadable videos ranges from $20 to $30 for the newest releases. Older titles are supposed to be available at a lower cost. It isn’t known what constitutes an “older title” in Hollywood mind-speak; for all we know Nosferatu could be the only film that qualifies.

Once a film has been purchased and downloaded, the user may create one backup copy for archival purposes, and that’s it. The copy cannot be viewed on standard DVD players. At least, not until DVD Jon releases a “fix” for that issue.

When considering that movies may only be viewed on a networked TV, it may be too soon to say this helps Apple as much as it does Microsoft. Both companies make media center software, Apple with Front Row and Microsoft with, well, Media Center. MovieLink’s system requirements list IE 5.0 or higher and Windows 2000 or XP.

That leaves Apple, its Mac mini, and Front Row out in the cold. And, it may irritate potential purchasers who own vehicles equipped with DVD players, like several minivan models.

Hollywood does not want to cannibalize DVD disc sales, and rightly so. The industry profits mightily from those sales. But how much could it make with a more generously priced online delivery model, where people could purchase just the movie with its restrictions for a lower price or choose the feature-filled DVD version at current rates?

The MPAA probably will never let us find that out.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

WatchMusicHere.com will offer music videos from multiple genres ranging from classics to the latest chart-topping videos. Each video will be available for prices ranging from $1.99 to $2.99 for a permanent copy that can be viewed for an unlimited number of times on the selected playback device.

“As the innovator in digital sell-through technology, and the leader in providing video content for mobile devices, expanding beyond movies and TV shows is a natural extension,” said Bruce Eisen, president of CinemaNow. “Launching WatchMusicHere.com is another demonstration of the diverse applications for our video-on-demand service. We are thrilled to be working with the record labels as they explore this promising new revenue stream and we are equally thrilled to be working with Microsoft’s Windows Mobile division to continue to provide valuable content for their innovative product lines.”

All music videos on the site will be made available in multiple formats that can be played back on traditional PCs and laptops as well as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile-based secure devices including the Portable Media Centers, Pocket PCs and select Smartphones. Users will be able to download the appropriate format and then transfer the video file to the secure device using Windows Media Player 10.

The site will launch with 75 music videos with over 1,500 additional titles expected to be available by December.

“With Portable Media Center devices from companies like Creative, Samsung and iRiver and new Windows Mobile-based Smartphones, music fans will be able to take their favorite music videos from their favorite acts with them anywhere and enjoy them anytime,” said John Pollard, director of Windows mobile services and applications and services marketing for Microsoft Corporation. “CinemaNow continues to be at the forefront of providing content for mobile devices and we are excited that the users of these great products will be able to access the music videos they love.”

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