Best Buy, CinemaNow, Aim To Stream Movies to Consumers

It was last year, when Blu-ray won the high-definition optical disc format wars over HD-DVD, that I speculated that its victory could be short, and that streaming video would overtake it sooner than people expected. Some laughter ensued, but as time goes on, it seems my prediction was more correct than many believed.

On Tuesday, Best Buy and Sonic Solutions a partnership that would leverage Sonic's Roxio CinemaNow service to deliver first-run DVDs streamed online directly to consumers. You may recall a similar deal between Blockbuster and Sonic. As part of the deal, Best Buy purchased an undisclosed amount of Sonic common stock.

Software would be integrated into most of the devices the Best Buy sells that can be connected to the Internet, including televisions, DVD players, computers and phones. The new movie service has not yet been named, nor definitively timed, but Best Buy is aiming for early 2010.

Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consulting firm, said that these retailers all get it:

“All these guys — Best Buy, Blockbuster and Netflix — realize is that the era of the boxed DVD is about to end. They all have to make the transition to the next generation of movie distribution, streaming directly to the consumer.”

Wow, that sounds exactly like what I said --- last year!

Once again, we have the same problem: more content to be downloaded, and more caps from folks like Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Makes one want to switch to FIOS or at least DSL (or maybe even U-Verse).