ITV joins online DVD rental fray with Video Island deal

by Philip Buxton,, Revolution UK 12-Nov-04, 14:00

LONDON - ITV is to join the online DVD rental market after striking a deal to offer a version of the Video Island service under the name ITV MovieClub.

The service, which will be available at itv.com/movieclub, is set for launch later this year and plans to offer viewers a choice from more than 20,000 DVD rental titles.

Colin Ramsay, head of online sales at ITV Sales, said: "By giving ITV MovieClub subscribers access to such a vast selection of movies and the opportunity to rate and review films, we are sure that the ITV MovieClub will quickly become one of the largest online communities of entertainment lovers in the UK."

ITV joins Tesco, MSN and Dixons as partners of Video Island, which merged with chief rival ScreenSelect in August. It is fighting a fierce battle for dominance of the UK online DVD rental market with LoveFilm, which has signed deals with Lastminute.com among others, as well as a number of US players, and the high street brand Blockbuster.

Saul Klein, CEO of Video Island, said: "Our strategy has always been to team up with the UK's largest national brands to bring DVD rental to the masses. In the world of home entertainment, brands don't get much bigger than ITV."

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