Blinkbox is a UK-based video-on-demand (VoD) website that allows users to legally preview, buy and rent over 6,000 full length premium movies and TV shows online. New releases are added constantly, with many becoming available on the same day as the DVD.

Blinkbox was co-founded by Michael Comish (CEO) and Adrian Letts (COO

Chief operating officer

A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...

), former senior executives of Channel 4 and Vodafone in 2006 and launched in 2008 with the backing of a number of venture capital firms, including Arts Alliance. On 20 April 2011, Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

 acquired a 80% stake in Blinkbox from Eden Ventures and Nordic Venture Partners, it intends to use the company to boost its digital entertainment offering.

Blinkbox has around 2.8 million users a month according to comScore

ComScore

comScore is a Internet marketing research company providing marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior....

, putting it above most of its competition.

Offer

Blinkbox has content deals with studios including Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

, Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

, Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...

, and 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

 and more than 15 leading independent producers such as FremantleMedia

FremantleMedia

FremantleMedia, Ltd. is the content and production division of Bertelsmann's RTL Group, Europe's second largest TV, radio, and production company...

, All3Media

All3Media

All3Media is a television production company which makes programmes under several different subsidiaries. The company was formed in 2003 following the acquisition of Chrysalis Group's television arm which was rebranded North One....

, Revolver Entertainment

Revolver Entertainment

Revolver Entertainment is a marketing-lead, all rights film distribution company. Founded in 1997, the company has operations in both London and Los Angeles....

 and Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit...

.

In 2010 Blinkbox extended its reach across multiple media formats by forging a number of innovative deals with some of the world’s biggest brands.

Blinkbox also moved into the TV market by signing a deal with the Samsung Group

Samsung Group

The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...

 allowing Blinkbox films to be streamed directly though any Internet@TV Samsung TVs. Blinkbox also formed a content partnership with YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 allowing the site to carry Blinkbox films on its new Movies section. The site also entered the games market by being the first site in the UK to offer streaming film content through Sony’s PlayStation 3

PlayStation 3

The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 console.

In June 2010, Blinkbox launched the "Full Stream Ahead" campaign bringing together leading film studios to offer free movie content for one week to encourage consumer adoption of streaming technology and demonstrating the advantages of legal streaming services over illegal file-sharing.

Blinkbox also allows visitors to leave comments and to customise clips by adding personal text messages to any section of a film or TV programme.

Business model

Blinkbox is the only service of its kind to have a combined free/pay offering, allowing users to stream paid-for feature titles alongside free, advert-supported TV and film content.

Additionally, a significant number of titles are free to watch, with revenue generated by advertisements during playback, similar to commercial television

Technology

Rental content can be streamed directly on to a PC, Mac, PS3 or Samsung Internet enabled television, and can be viewed an unlimited number of times over a 24-hour period while Buy-to-own content can be streamed on an unlimited basis.

Downloaded content is protected using Microsoft's Windows Media DRM

Windows Media DRM

Windows Media DRM is a Digital Rights Management service for the Windows Media platform. It is designed to provide delivery of audio and/or video content over an IP network to a PC or other playback device in such a way that the distributor can control how that content is used.WMDRM includes the...

 digital rights management. The streaming service enables users to watch a selection of their premium content instantly using Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

secure video delivery technology.

External links

• Official blinkbox website