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TalkTalk relaunches TV Store with lowest price promise
TalkTalk may've already renamed the video streaming service it acquired from Tesco last summer, but today marks something of a formal relaunch. The TalkTalk TV Store, formerly known as Blinkbox under Tesco's wing, still serves exactly the same purpose. Like Amazon Instant Video, the Sky Store or Wuaki.tv, users can rent or buy movies and TV shows to watch on multiple devices, no subscription required. The most important change today is pricing, with TalkTalk now claiming to be the cheapest place to catch new releases like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While that's technically true, TalkTalk has simply matched Amazon's pricing, so they share the title together.
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Blinkbox Music's user database was just sold to... JD Sports
Of Tesco's three ailing digital Blinkbox services, its e-book store appeared to be the only one that would go gently into that good night. Eventually, it did, while Blinkbox Movies found a new owner in TalkTalk (which finally got 'round to rebranding the service earlier this month), and Blinkbox Music was snapped up by appropriate suitor Guvera. Since the Australia-based streaming service took the reins, however, things have gone from bad to worse.
TalkTalk finally rebrands Tesco's old Blinkbox service
A year ago Tesco abandoned its various Blinkbox businesses, which spanned TV, movies, music and ebooks, by either closing them down or selling them off to the highest bidder. The TV and movie streaming portion was acquired by TalkTalk and today, the service is finally taking on a new form. Head over to the Blinkbox website and you'll see the new "TalkTalk TV Store" logo, which Pocket-Lint reports will soon be paired with a matching domain. Likewise, the Blinkbox apps are now TalkTalk TV Player, bringing everything in line with its broader TalkTalk TV branding.
Tesco officially calls time on the Hudl
Last week, it became apparent that Tesco wasn't gearing up to release a new low-cost Hudl tablet, as it had done in October in years past. When asked about the future of the Hudl brand, Tesco confirmed it had no current plans for a third-generation tablet, but it did say: "We continue to sell our Hudl2 and it remains a popular device with our customers." And so it appeared Tesco wasn't quite ready to call it quits on own-brand hardware, even if a new device wasn't in the cards, and probably never would be. A lot can change in a week, however, and it now looks like we've heard the last of Hudl, with Tesco no longer stocking its tablet in bricks-and-mortar and online stores.
Tesco taps Kobo to offer Binkbox Books libraries when it closes
Unlike Blinkbox Movies and Blinkbox Music, Tesco hasn't found a buyer for its underperforming Blinkbox Books service. We expected the e-book platform to quietly fade into the night, along with customers' purchases, but it seems Tesco has a parting gift for bookworms that embraced its Kindle alternative. The beleaguered supermarket is teaming up with Kobo so that users can transition their Blinkbox libraries to the rival platform, free of charge. Tesco says it'll email users in the next two to three weeks with a special code for unlocking their purchases inside Kobo; the latter's library should also mirror Blinkbox's exactly, so readers won't lose any books in the move. At this stage it's not clear if any money is changing hands, but there are obvious benefits for both parties; Tesco now has a better chance of avoiding customer backlash, while Kobo gets to pick up a wave of new users. Of course, Kobo already has an Android app too, so it should be a fairly easy transition for Hudl owners who want to keep Tesco's tablet as their primary e-reader.
What is Guvera and what does it have planned for Blinkbox Music?
Tesco has had a tough old time of late, with falling sales and a fresh investigation into its accounts. The battered supermarket needs to turn itself around, and fast, so it's been looking to offload any nonessential services that may have been dragging down its balance sheet. Unsurprisingly, that means its various Blinkbox offerings have been some of the first to face the chop. After selling Blinkbox Movies to TalkTalk, Tesco announced yesterday it had auctioned off Blinkbox Music and plans to close Blinkbox Books. The supermarket still has its Hudl tablets, of course, but some of the more interesting services that come pre-installed are now no longer under its control. Clearly, Tesco just couldn't make enough money from them, but any chance it had of fixing the problem has now been lost.
Tesco has given up on Blinkbox
Since October 2014, Tesco has done all it can to rid itself of its loss-making digital download service Blinkbox. TalkTalk came to its rescue, picking up Blinkbox Movies and its broadband services earlier this month, but the fate of its Music and Books businesses remained unclear -- until today. In an announcement this morning, the supermarket giant confirmed it has offloaded Blinkbox Music to Guvera, a music streaming company that has offered users access to its free ad-supported service since 2008.
What's next for Blinkbox?
Tesco has been struggling of late, so its decision to sell Blinkbox to TalkTalk was hardly a shock. The supermarket giant isn't a technology company, at least not traditionally, and the video streaming service never really struck a chord with the British public. However, TalkTalk reportedly spent a smooth £5 million for the platform, so clearly it thinks the service still has some potential. If that's the case, what exactly is next for Blinkbox?
TalkTalk buys Tesco's Blinkbox and broadband services
It's been a long time coming, but Tesco has finally offloaded its loss-making streaming service Blinkbox. At the end of the last year, it looked increasingly likely that TalkTalk has positioned itself as the favourite to buy the service, and today the quad-play provider confirmed a deal has been reached. According to TalkTalk, Blinkbox's integration with its existing TV business will "begin immediately," with the benefits of the merger expected to show themselves by the end of the year.
TalkTalk is also in talks to buy Tesco's Blinkbox streaming service
It's no secret that Tesco is looking to offload Blinkbox, its loss-making streaming service, but it looks like the struggling supermarket giant may have finally found a buyer. According to the Financial Times, TalkTalk is now favourite to relieve Tesco of its movie rental platform, and while talks are still ongoing, a deal could be announced as soon as next week. The news comes almost a month after it emerged Vodafone was looking to buy Blinkbox, which would have allowed the carrier to move beyond its current partnerships with Sky and Netflix. With hundreds of thousands more customers on its books, TalkTalk would instantly gain a hold in the UK streaming market if it can reach an agreement, giving it more leverage against Sky, Virgin Media and what becomes of the potential £12.5 billion merger between BT and EE.
Blinkbox extends offline movie and TV playback to Android tablets
When offline playback arrived for Blinkbox's video streaming service on the iPad, we knew that Android support couldn't be far behind. After all, Tesco has plenty of Hudl 2 tablets to sell this Christmas, which all heavily promote its services. So for your next commute or agonising car journey with the little ones, Blinkbox now lets you queue up some sweet flicks in advance. Unlike Apple's tablets, you can both purchase titles and manage your downloads from inside the Blinkbox app, although offline playback isn't supported on Android 4.4.3 and higher. Early Lollipop adopters might be left out in the cold, but Tesco hopes to make amends with new movies via Entertainment Film Distributors, including American Hustle, Transcendence and Her -- plenty to keep you occupied during the wet and chilly winter months.
Tesco now offers digital copies of movies you've bought in any store
Tesco's Blinkbox video streaming service might be facing a less-than-certain future, but that doesn't mean the supermarket giant is ready concede defeat just yet. Mirroring similar moves by Amazon and Sky, the company today announced become the first major UK retailer to let customers grab digital copies of their DVDs and Blu-rays via Ultraviolet, which can be stored inside a Blinkbox account. Tesco isn't just limiting the locker service to movies bought in its own supermarkets, either, making all of your Ultraviolet-enabled titles available to instantly stream or download across a wide number of devices, including the new Hudl2. To get started, you'll need to create your Ultraviolet library, link your Blinkbox account and then get streamin'.
Tesco is closing its Clubcard TV streaming service
When Tesco launched Clubcard TV early last year, everything we saw suggested that the ad-supported streaming service would be nothing more than an experiment. That hunch has proved accurate, because the company has said it will shutter the free service on October 28th. According to a Clubcard TV support page, Tesco didn't get "the level of repeat usage [it] had hoped for," so it'll close the service in order to concentrate on its more established resource, Blinkbox. The supermarket giant will still offer Clubcard points alongside Blinkbox movie purchases, though, which will suit those who intend to watch films on the new (and supposedly bigger) Hudl 2 when it's unveiled later this week.
Wuaki.tv to join Netflix and Amazon with 4K streaming
In the competitive UK streaming market, pricing might be important, but many services live and die on the features they offer. With juggernauts like Netflix and Amazon already committing to bumping up the quality of their streams, Wuaki.tv is moving quickly to match its competition by adding 4K content to its service. The company has worked with LG and Samsung to develop a new app capable of streaming 4K movies direct to compatible TVs in the UK and Spain by the end of the year. Like Amazon and Tesco's Blinkbox, Wuaki.tv offers a mixture of subscription or pay-as-you-go movies and TV shows, letting you stream its 4K content any way you want it.
Tesco rumored to launch its own tablet, hopes you'll add one to the shopping list
Tesco's grown from supermarket heavyweight to digital content contender thanks to its paid Blinkbox TV / movie and music streaming services, Clubcard TV ad-supported video platform and in-development e-book store. According to The Times, Tesco's about to get into the hardware business, too, with the launch of homegrown tablet sometime before Christmas. Details of the rumored device are non-existent, but it's said to come loaded with video, music and e-books, as well as apps for Tesco's online shopping, banking and Blinkbox services. It's a completely plausible next step for the company, and would mimic Amazon and Google's model of selling low-cost hardware, in part, to showcase their digital content offerings. Presumably, there's also scope for a 3G variant running on Tesco Mobile. We'd guess that if the retailer does release a tablet, it'll run Android and be extremely budget-friendly -- it'll have to be to go up against the new Nexus 7 and Amazon's Fire slates (let alone the rumored next-gen). As always, we've hit up Tesco for confirmation and comment, and will update you if we hear anything back.
Blinkbox goes HD for Game of Thrones season three, available July 15th
Tesco's VOD service Blinkbox beat all other UK players to the punch when it hosted the second season of Game of Thrones well before the box-set launch, and it's doing the same with season three. It's only just ended, but from July 15th, the latest series will be available to download or stream in its entirety, and what's more, its arrival marks the first time HD content has been accessible on Blinkbox. You'll also be able to watch season three in SD, should you want to, and both previous seasons will get HD options when the third lands. Pricing isn't yet confirmed, but we'd expect the cost to be similar to that of season two, which was £1.79 (around $2.80) per episode, or £17.99 (around $28) for all ten. If you haven't seen Game of Thrones yet, and we highly recommend you do, you've got just over a month to prepare for the Blinkbox launch and subsequent marathon.
Tesco names new digital services and the ex-Facebook, Sainsbury's execs that'll run 'em
Anyone that calls the UK home will know that Tesco is a retail behemoth and, like many other supermarkets, has turned into a one-stop shop for everything from a pint of milk to the latest video game releases. It's grown into much more than a store, however, running an MVNO (although it sometimes gets confused about hardware) and the subscription-based video streaming service Blinkbox. Last year, Tesco let its wider digital ambitions be known, acquiring both a music streaming service and an e-book publisher. We've now been told these companies are the primordial soup from which its new online content emporiums will spawn later this year, known as Blinkboxmusic and Blinkboxbooks, respectively. And who'll be responsible for these new ventures? Well, they're somebodies -- Gavin Sathianathan, who was previously Head of Retail (EMEA) at Facebook, will head up the e-book offering, while Mark Bennett, formerly Head of Digital & Cross Channel at rival super-supermarket Sainsbury's, will run the musical endeavor. Tesco also announced that former Blinkbox exec Scott Deutrom is taking the reins of Clubcard TV, a new ad-supported video streaming service currently being tested. So, what's next for Tesco, apart from world domination? If industry trends are anything to go by, a mobile OS, most likely.
Tesco experiments with free movie and TV streaming for Clubcard members
Brits who shop enough at Tesco to be on a first name basis with the clerks may soon have a reward that doesn't require leaving home. The UK retail chain is currently testing Clubcard TV, a web-based movie and TV streaming hub that would be a free perk of Clubcard membership. As it exists in beta form, the Blinkbox-derived service won't have Lovefilm or Netflix quaking in their boots: there's a limited slate of mostly family-oriented fare, and Tesco's notion of TV streaming involves the video output on a laptop. While neither is an issue as long as the trial is limited to staff, we hope there's a richer platform by the time Clubcard TV is open to anyone with a lot of grocery shopping in mind.
HBO and Blinkbox offer second season of Game of Thrones online before DVD / Blu-ray release in UK
Folks in North America may have to wait for the upcoming DVD or Blu-ray release to purchase the second season of Game of Thrones, but those in the UK have another option thanks to a new partnership between HBO UK and the Tesco-owned Blinkbox video-on-demand service. That deal sees both the second seasons of Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire making their debut on the online service well ahead of their traditional home video releases, where they're also available alongside the first seasons of each show and a number of other newly available HBO titles. In the case of Game of Thrones, you'll pay £17.99 (or about $30) for each season or £1.79 (or $3) for individual episodes, and you can choose to either download or stream the episodes and view them on a variety of devices (including game consoles, the iPad and some smart TVs).
So, Tesco buys Peter Gabriel's WE7 music service for $16.7 million
British Supermarket behemoth Tesco has snapped up WE7, a streaming music service co-founded by Peter Gabriel that offers personalized radio stations to users, for £10.8 million ($16.7 million). The UK's biggest supermarket has purchased 91 percent of the company, with the remaining stake set to be transferred over shortly. It looks like the chain will use WE7's infrastructure and resources as the spine for a beefier music service as British supermarkets look to diversify into the entertainment market following its purchase of Blinkbox last year.
