Barnes & Noble Nook launches video service
US bookseller Barnes & Noble said on Tuesday it would launch a video service with films and television programs which can be purchased by owners of its Nook tablet in the United States and Britain.
The service to debut later this year will include "blockbuster movies, classic films and original TV shows from major studios" for viewing on tablets, televisions or smartphones.
Participating studios include HBO, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Starz, Viacom, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney.
The Nook video catalog will include titles such as "Brave," "Toy Story 3," "The Avengers," "21 Jump Street," "Awkward," "The Artist," "Breaking Bad" and the "Harry Potter" movies.
Videos that are streamed and downloaded from the Nook Store will be stored in the Nook Cloud and can be accessed from other devices.
"As one of the world's largest retailers of physical video discs and digital copyrighted content, our new Nook Video service will give our customers another way to be entertained with a vast and growing digital video collection, as part of our expansive Nook Store," said William Lynch, chief executive of Barnes & Noble.
"The launch of our new digital video service with our long-time studio partners allows us to bring award-winning current and classic movies, TV shows, documentaries and more to millions of customers' screens, coming soon."
The company earlier this year said it was bringing its Nook to Britain, the first customers outside the US market.
Nook has had a small share of the tablet market in the United States behind Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire. It teamed up this year with Microsoft, which agreed to pump $300 million into the company's Nook unit.
(c) 2012 AFP
