Move over, movie studios: Tesco may start distributing original digital content soon. The retailer has announced that it is teaming up with a new production company, Amber Entertainment, to develop films based on novels. The first of these a film called Paris Connections, based on a Jackie Collins book.
Tesco’s films will be distributed exclusively through stores, but a spokesperson tells paidContent:UK that the content may be coming online, too: “We won’t confirm at the moment but obviously there are wider linkups that are possible.”
Tesco was one of the early success stories for online shopping with its Tesco.com shopping and delivery service, but some of its other new media plays have come up croppers. Tesco TV, launched in 2004, had ambitions to attract five percent of all TV ad revenue but dropped the service last year. But like other physical retailers like Best Buy and HMV (LSE: HMV), Tesco has been putting a lot of effort into its online operation to complement physical sales of media products…
Its umbrella site Tesco Entertainment, offers DVD rentals “powered by” Lovefilm. And since last autumn it has been offering online downloads of TV and film content. In music, it regularly undercuts prices for tracks in competition with other online distributors such as Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). Other content sold through the site includes games.
Earlier this month, Tesco also signed on as a member of the DECE, a digital entertainment consortium working on creating a “buy once, play anywhere” content format. Other members of that group include the retailer Best Buy as well as Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO), Fox, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Warner Bros.
The company declined to reveal any figures for these digital operations, or to say how they compared with physical sales for the products.
“Home entertainment is a big opportunity for Tesco both instore and online,” Rob Salter, the Tesco Entertainment Director who joined the company 18 months ago, said in an emailed release. “We are working hard to develop ourselves as a multichannel retailer.”
Tesco is also signing deals with companies like Dreamworks for exclusive rights to distribute its films in the UK, the idea being that Tesco dedicates significantly more marketing resources to pushing these products if it knows it’s the only one carrying them. The Tesco spokesperson says the company has yet to cut an exclusive deal for online distribution.

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