Tesco Targets Digital Entertainment Growth

With the recent acquisition of ebook company Mobcast, Tesco are looking to increase ther market share of the digital entertainment sector. They can now add an ebook store to their ownership of We7 the music streaming platform and their 80% stake in BlinkBox, the video streaming platform.

Mobcast as a platform is one of the biggest ebook retailers, offering titles that can be read not only on ereaders, but tablet devices and smartphones. Purchased books can also be stored in a cloud storage facility, so that they can be accessed from multiple devices rather than just downloaded and saved to one.

Tesco spent £4.5million on the deal to buy Mobcast, but with the platform already boasting over 130,000 titles, it shouldn't take too long for Tesco to see a return on their investment. Tesco is already one of the UK's biggest sellers of books, so with the new offering of digital sales, Tesco can expect to make even further headway into that sector.

The ebook market growth is strong, with sales of digital versions now outselling those of their printed counterparts, making it one of the most popular forms of purchasing digital entertainment. Tesco's new market share comes at the perfect time, where they can now take ownership of a platform that provides a service of which is currently very popular and looks set to continue in the same way.

This move by Tesco comes shortly after Sainsbury's made a similar one. Having created their own movie streaming service and music download platform, the supermarket recently bought a 64% stake in ebook retailer Anobii. This means that both supermarkets now have an almost equal offering of online digital entertainment, but with Tesco buying already successful platforms and with Sainsbury's launching their own, it seems that Tesco's move may be lower risk.

 

Written by Jason John Mills