Sainsbury’s kills its streaming and digital services

UK supermarket Sainsbury’s has called time on its Entertainment on Demand streaming and digital retail service.

Over the last four years we have enjoyed providing our customers with eBooks, MP3 music, digital magazines, and movies and TV on demand,” it said.

We have made some great progress and learnt a lot about the digital entertainment market. However, following a detailed review of our service we have made the difficult decision to close Sainsbury’s Entertainment on Demand and focus on our core businesses.”

Refunds are being offered for any purchases or unredeemed movie and TV rentals. Digital magazines are also being refunded. eBook customers, meanwhile, will be able to transfer their purchases to Kobo. Music customers are being advised to download any purchased tracks before the service terminates on December 1st.

Tesco similarly previously abandoned its digital sales venture.