Sky reveals details of Buy & Keep service, including postal service, price-points.
Sky is to send customers DVD copies of films they purchase digitally through its new Buy & Keep service, the extension of its digital rental service Sky Store.
The ‘Buy and Keep’ service, Sky’s answer to Apple’s iTunes Store and other online retailers, will launch later this month with around 200 films from studios Fox and Universal, and with Warner Bros’ The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
The broadcaster is in discussion with other studios and indie-majors for additional content.
New releases, some available on the service digitally three months after theatrical release, will cost a hefty £13.99 ($23). Library titles will cost £7.99 ($13).
Those price-points include the postage and packaging costs of the physical DVD, which is due to arrive within days. Physical copies will be available four months after theatrical release, ie, at the same time as their general DVD release.
Films to be added to the service in the coming weeks include The Wolf of Wall Street, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom andLone Survivor.
The service signals Sky’s intent to claim some of the UK’s lucrative DVD market, which although in decline is still worth £1.4bn ($2.3bn).
Ian Lewis, director of Sky Movies and acquisitions explained the decision to move into the physical arena: “Sky customers already account for around half of all DVD and Blu-ray purchases in the UK, so we know they love owning movies.”
Sky Store was made available to non-Sky subscribers late last year.
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