Sainsbury’s is ditching online sales of DVDs, books and games for digital downloads across the board. But with no high-definition video on offer, Sainsbury’s must be off its trolley taking on Tesco’s Blinkbox.
Sainsbury’s will now only sell and rent digital downloads for films, music and books, with actual physical media and products limited to stores.
The supermarket can still profit from the launch of the two new next-gen consoles, the Xbox One and Sony PS4, over the next month, but will stop selling CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays, books, video games and even games consoles from the end of February.
Saino’s will still send you products pre-ordered for launch before 15 March, but after that it’s all digital, all the time.
Pretty sensible in this digital day and age. The Sainsbury’s Entertainment on-demand store is stuffed with films and TV to rent — and every quid spent earns you two Nectar points into the bargain. Films can be streamed and downloaded to Windows PCs and laptops and an iOS app, or streamed to an Xbox app and Apple Mac computers.
Prices vary: The Wolverine and The World’s End are £7.99, but World War Z is £13.99 and Cliff Richard: Still Reelin’ and a’ Rockin’ Live is £12.99. Rentals for new movies cost £3.49 or thereabouts. Meanwhile MP3 albums cost around £7.99.
But Sainsbury’s doesn’t offer high-definition movies and TV, which puts Tesco’s film and telly-streaming service Blinkbox way ahead. Tesco also has the cheap and cheerful Hudl tablet wooing even non-tech-savvy customers to Blinkbox.
Sainsbury’s says it’s planning HD next year, but couldn’t offer me a firm date.
Is Sainsbury’s right to ditch physical products? Where do you buy your music, movies and books? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook wall.