CinemaNow to Power Best Buy Video Service

Best Buy announced today that it will be licensing Sonic Solutions’ CinemaNow platform to power an over-the-top video delivery service for the electronics retailer. This agreement expands on the partnership the two companies entered into earlier this summer.

The multi-year deal will have Best Buy getting its CinemaNow-powered movie service embedded onto a number of connected consumer electronics devices from manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and Best Buy’s own Insignia line of products. Movies rented or bought through the Best Buy service will be compatible across CinemaNow-enabled devices.

CinemaNow already powers the online video offerings of Blockbuster, and is available on LG Blu-ray players, but this marks a pretty big retailer solidifying its position in the over-the-top delivery space. It also means that Best Buy will be able to push its own flavor of movie delivery through in-store promotion and education. A name for the new service will be announced in the coming weeks and the service itself will roll out over the next couple of quarters.

Last month, Best Buy entered into an agreement with Netflix to put the subscription video service on its Insignia products.

CinemaNow offers 22,000 titles, and a rep for the company told us that 80 percent of its transactions are new release titles.