Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), the country's biggest cable operator, is getting into the business of selling downloads of movies much like online retailers such as Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) do today. Comcast will sell these movies a few weeks before they're available on DVD.
Apps for the storefront, called Xfinity TV Store, began appearing in the iOS App Store and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Play store last week, according to Multichannel News. Additionally, a website describing the service, which will also reportedly be available through Comcast-leased set-top boxes, has been posted. The service launched Wednesday.
Comcast already offers many movies through its video-on-demand service, but the new service would let buyers keep the titles they purchase even after they cancel Comcast service, according to an FAQ on the site.
Whether viewers are interested in buying digital movies remains unclear. Online, most consumers choose to rent or stream movies, rather than buy them outright.
For more:
- Reuters had this report
- the Wall Street Journal had this report (sub. req.)
- Multichannel News had this report
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Article updated Nov. 20, 2013 to reflect the launch of the service.