The Sears Holding Corp., which currently owns Sears and Kmart, plans to launch a digital online movie store before the end of the year.
Dubbed Alphaline Entertainment, Sears plans to offer popular movies and TV episodes directly on a “broad range of devices,” Sears predicts. Sears will bundle the service with some PCs, HDTVs and other consumer gadgets, but the company’s partners weren’t listed.
It is known that Sonic will include its RoxioNow service through the Sears-created store, as Sears looks to cash in on digital distribution.
“We wanted to offer a service on all of the devices we sell, not just TVs, but Blu-ray (players), tablets, all the devices we’re in or going to get into” said Sears and Kmart’s home electronics VP Elliot Becker.
Hollywood is comfortable with retailers becoming involved since they’re looking to perk up their product lineups, but don’t present a threat to movie studios. Sonic also has numerous
partnerships with movie studios, which was likely a deciding factor in their support of Alphaline.
The online video market currently has the likes of Amazon, Netflix, Google, Apple and others, but seeing a retailer such as Sears jump into the market is somewhat different. WalMart and Best Buy also have expanded further into the living room, but Sears hopes to rejuvenate its shaky home electronics department.
If this program is successful, Sonic believes it has the right pieces of the puzzle for long-term stability. The company will collect revenue for every consumer product sold that includes RoxioNow, along with a mandatory fee when an owner rents or buys a movie using the service.
Sonic will also receive compensation when the company has upgraded and fixed the RoxioNow platform, but it’s unknown how frequently RoxioNow needs to be maintained.
