Some interesting news, Tesco has acquired majority ownership of Blinkbox (similar to Lovefilm): Tesco buys 80 per cent of Blinkbox, The Independent, 21 Apr 2011.

I'm not sure I'd be quite as excitable as The Guardian's coverage: Tesco's Blinkbox deal shows video on demand is headed for the mainstream

Some further clues in what's behind the move, from the Wall Street Journal.

Yes, they want to be part of the growing entertainment scene, gonefishin. Currently Blinkbox offers a range of free and paid for TV programmes and films http://www.blinkbox.com/.

Although not explicitly stated in the articles above, they could do quite well out of this application because, from 2012 onwards, Blinkbox could start to become directly available in millions of homes via Youview: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...s-youview.html.

It seems a pretty astute move by Tesco assuming that Youview launches next year as planned.

Yes and no. Tesco's digital strategy has been surprisingly behind; the same could've also been said about Amazon until it surprised the market by stealing a lead on Apple and launching its cloud store first - though initially just music.

Tesco was looking for something off-the-shelf to solve it problems, I guess the price Arqiva are asking for SeeSaw was significantly higher than the 'single digit millions' Tesco paid for Blinkbox.

Sorry to drag up an old topic.

I use Blinkbox and this, to me, seemed to have happened under the radar or I read the wrong papers. Hopefully this will work out for Tesco or they will lose interest and I like Blinkbox!

Tesco retailed a Freeview HD box (the Technika STBHDIS2010) that is neither a Vestel clone (Technika STBHDV2010) nor a Harvard - Grundig, Goodmans, Alba clone (Technika STBHDH2010)

That included "Channel Zero" which is also in the business of providing IPTV services. They promise a BBC iPlayer and "other" services on Channel Zero but the only current way of accessing on line is the Technika IS box which is being discontinued and discounted to £30. Despite this, Channel Zero have indicated development work on the IPTV service continues.

I am a subscriber to Tesco's DVD rental service via Amazon's Lovefilm, no mention yet by Tesco of moving to a Blinkbox IPTV service!

Looks like Blinkbox will be part of the pay content on Youview boxes which will probably be sold at Tescos!
http://www.youview.com/industry/content/groups-vod/