We recently posted on Sonic Solution’s acquisition of Divx, on Google TV and on the various IETV (Internet-enabled TV, or OTT, over-the top TV) business and deployment models.
In keeping with this theme, last week Sonic announced a major new agreement to digitally distribute movies and TV programming for Sears and Kmart. Following Walmart’s acquisition of Vudu earlier this year, we now have two new mass merchant giants moving into the OTT business via this Sonic agreement. This is significant as Sears and Kmart have more combined storefronts than Walmart. Sonic also already powers the online movie stores for Best Buy and Blockbuster.
How did Sonic get here? The company started by encoding and manufacturing DVDs and Blu-Ray movies. In 2008, they purchased the online movie storefront CinemaNow. CinemaNow, now renamed RoxioNow, is part of the “Hollywood to Home” suite of Sonic products for the creation, distribution and playback of digital content.
Sonic now holds a strong competitive position in the OTT business. Their assets include branded and white-label media storefronts, streaming and download technology and video player applications (many acquired via the Divx transaction) on millions of TVs, DVD and Blu-ray players, mobile phones and other terminal devices.
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