Carrefour will launch its video-on-demand service this month.
The retailer will formally present Nolim Films on 27 January in a Paris press conference. It will compete to a certain extent with Netflix, which has been operating in France for several months, and with Canalplay. It is not, however, a subscription-based service, as Netflix is, so direct competition will be eschewed.
Carrefour launched its e-reader programme under the name Nolim two years ago. It also sells DVDs in its outlets. It is working with the American firm UltraViolet (which also does business with Walmart and Target) to facilitate a system whereby when one buys a DVD, a digital copy also becomes available on the purchaser's tablet and PC for future consumption. It is anticipated that DVDs with the UltraViolet logo will retail at €30.
In recent years, the sales of DVDs in France have been plummeting (-14 per cent in 2014).
© 2014 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article written by Peter Donnelly.
