Barnes & Noble said on Tuesday it was launching a video streaming and download service this autumn for its Nook e-books and device business.
The new NOOK Video offering will premiere this fall with blockbuster movies, classic films and original TV shows from studios including HBO, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, STARZ, Viacom and Warner Bros. Entertainment, plus movies from The Walt Disney Studios. The company will offer a digital collection of popular films and television shows to be enjoyed anywhere on NOOKs, TVs, tablets and smartphones. Barnes & Noble is also planning to make available content from other studios.
Beginning this fall in the US and coming this holiday season to the UK, NOOK Video will offer its customers the opportunity to shop a digital collection of standard and high-definition movies and TV shows available for streaming and download.
Videos that are streamed and downloaded from the NOOK Store will be stored in the NOOK Cloud, so NOOK Video content can be enjoyed on NOOKs and other devices via soon-to-launch free NOOK Video apps. As with the NOOK Reading apps, NOOK Video apps will work together so the company's customers can pick up watching right where they left off on any of their connected devices.
NOOK Video will also integrate a customer's compatible physical DVD and Blu-ray Disc purchases and digital video collection across their devices through UltraViolet. Users will soon be able to link their UltraViolet accounts to the NOOK Cloud allowing them to view their previously and newly purchased UltraViolet-enabled movies and TV shows across NOOK devices and NOOK Video apps, as well as through third party applications. In addition to purchasing a digital version via NOOK Video, customers can shop for DVDs and Blu-ray discs with the UltraViolet logo in Barnes & Noble and other retail stores, add them to their digital collection, and instantly watch compatible titles from the NOOK Cloud.
Barnes & Noble faces competition from Amazon.com, which already offers the Prime Instant Video service and makes the Kindle Fire tablet. Earlier this month, Amazon signed a three-year deal with Hollywood studio Epix that will add thousands of movies to Amazon's video streaming library.