U.K. supermarket chain Tesco on Monday announced three new hires to oversee its forthcoming digital entertainment services. Tesco plans to launch an ebookstore called blinkboxbooks and a digital music store called blinkboxmusic later this year, and will roll out Clubcard TV, an ad-supported streaming TV and movie site, soon.
Gavin Sathianathan, who was Facebook’s head of retail for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will be managing director of blinkboxbooks. Mark Bennett, who was head of digital at U.K. supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, will be managing director of blinkboxmusic. And Scott Deutrom, who was director of advertising at blinkbox, will be managing director of Clubcard TV.
Tesco bought a majority stake in video streaming site blinkbox in 2011 and acquired white-label ebook service Mobcast and streaming music service We7 last year. Those services will be the foundations of the new blinkbox sites.
“The three Blinkbox retail sites will sit separately from Tesco’s main online store and will only carry subtle Tesco branding. However, the supermarket will advertise the sites heavily in store and use them to ensure that customers in search of specialist online sites for books, music, films and TV box sets continue buying from the Tesco empire instead of falling into the habit of shopping for entertainment products elsewhere. It will target the millions of customers who still haven’t started shopping online in a big way.”
“The development of these new services demonstrates our total commitment to providing the very best entertainment as easily as possible for our customers,” Michael Comish, Tesco’s CEO of digital entertainment, said in a statement. “They allow us to provide even more choice in how customers buy and enjoy their entertainment.”

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