Blockbuster, Sonic announce VOD plans

DALLAS, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Blockbuster and Sonic Solutions are teaming up to give consumers instant access to the Blockbuster digital movie service via home and portable devices.

The companies this week announced an alliance to offer subscribers "access to a vast library of premium digital entertainment across a wide assortment of home and mobile electronic devices.

"Under the multi-year, preferred-provider agreement, Blockbuster will supply the branded consumer interfaces and Sonic will power content delivery across PC and consumer electronic devices," the companies said in a release announcing their video on demand plan.

"We are excited to be partnering with Sonic, the industry's leading entertainment delivery and technology provider, to make Blockbuster's digital entertainment service easily and instantly available to consumers through the widest range of devices available in the marketplace," Jim Keyes, Blockbuster chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "Blockbuster is a ubiquitous entertainment presence in the physical world. Through this alliance with Sonic, we plan to become a ubiquitous presence in the digital world as well. Our goal is to offer consumers the most digital content, the most accessibility, via the most devices, both in and out of home."

Sonic said its device ecosystem, powered by its new CinemaNow software development kit, will "help streamline the introduction of Blockbuster's digital entertainment service into a wide variety of consumer electronic devices, both Mac- and Windows-enabled, via adaptive streaming and progressive download." The devices are to be sold through Blockbuster retail stores, blockbuster.com and various other retailers.