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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.
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.
