This week, Sears and Kmart announced that they have launched Alphaline, a Video on Demand service that offers customers access to buy and download or rent and stream TV shows and movies including TV shows the day after they air, and new movies on the same day they are released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Sonic Solutions is working with Sears on a multi-phase rollout. In this beginning phase, the movies and TV shows can be played on PCs and Alphaline-enabled TVs and devices. Some devices that can play Alphaline movies include: PCs, Xbox 360, TiVo, RoxioNow-enabled TVs, Blu-ray players and other home theater and mobile devices from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, Vizio, Onkyo, Sharp, Philips, Sony and HTC.
The new service follows in the steps of other retailers. In 2010, Walmart acquired Vudu for downloading and rentals of thousands of high quality films. And Cinema Now is Best Buy's Video On Demand service, and like Alphaline, it uses the RoxioNow platform.
As with other Video On Demand sites, there is no subscription fee. Movies and TV shows can be rented and streamed or bought and downloaded. According to the Alphaline website, movies and TV shows can be rented for as little as 49 cents. TV shows can be bought for $1.99, and movies rented for $3.99.
Movies and shows are stored in a "virtual locker" which means that customers can access them from any of their home or mobile RoxioNow enabled devices at anytime.