Sky has made plans to introduce a new service in the near future Sky Buy & Keep, they plan to let customers buy HD movies to download and keep on their Sky box. Sky must be feeling the strain of companies like Amazon and Netflix which now allow users to stream movies and TV series directly.
Sky will be hoping to challenge this market with the launch of this new service and the icing on the cake; you will not only be able to buy the latest Hollywood blockbusters but also receive a physical DVD through the post within 5 days of purchase, all for the low price of £13.99 for a new release and £7.99 for old titles.
It’s seems odd to supply a DVD with this as they could probably charge far less without it, however Sky has done its homework and apparently their data shows that Sky customers represent around 50 per cent of physical DVD buying public.
The new service, which is expected to launch toward the end of April, will feature around 200 titles to start, giving Sky a chance to promote films that it has access to. It already confirmed that films including Turbo, Wolf of Wall Street, and the new Hobbit film will come to the service and said it plans to add more studios and TV box sets over time. There is also talk of it being available for the Sky App although no word on whether this will be available at the same time.
See also: Sky Go app now available on (almost) all Android tablets
“Millions of people still buying physical,” explained Nicola Bamford, director of Sky Store. “The world is moving to digital, but it’s not there yet.”
When a movie is purchased it will be saved to your Sky+ HD box and dependent on internet speed available to watch in minutes via the standard Planner interface. The film will remain there for ever or until you remove it, it will however be archived and available to download again at a later date.
Note that they have said you will be sent a DVD not a Blu-Ray, no word on whether this will be a future feature and if it will the cost will most likely be considerably more. The Buy & Keep service will go live with the new EPG rollout expected soon.