MUMBAI: In a move to further provide customers with convenient access to home entertainment, Blockbuster Inc. has acquired movie download service Movielink.
The acquisition gives Blockbuster access to one of the largest libraries of downloadable movies and a large array of television content.
With thousands of movies and television shows available in its digital library for downloading, Movielink offers customers the ability to legally download entertainment content for rental (VOD) and for purchase (EST). The service was created in 2002 by Movielink, LLC, a joint venture of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Studios.
The acquisition of Movielink, which has VOD and EST license agreements with the five founding studios, as well as more than 30 other studios, television-content distributors, and foreign and independent content providers, enables Blockbuster to offer consumers downloadable entertainment content via their PCs, portable devices, television-connected home networks and approved set-top boxes.
“Blockbuster is committed to keeping pace with the changing needs of customers by offering them an expanding array of convenient ways to access entertainment content. Our acquisition of Movielink, with its associated digital content, is the next logical step in our planned transformation of Blockbuster. Now, in addition to the entertainment content we provide through our stores and by mail, we have taken an important step toward being able to make movie downloading conveniently available to computers, portable devices and ultimately to the television at home,” said Blockbuster chairman and CEO Jim Keyes.
“The studios’ goal with the Movielink service has always been to make digital entertainment content more conveniently, more widely and more securely available to consumers. This acquisition should further that goal. With Blockbuster’s ability to leverage its store network, online assets, and marketing expertise, Blockbuster should be able to grow the market for digitally-delivered entertainment content, and we believe that’s good news for consumers and content providers alike,” said Movielink CEO Jim Ramo.
