U.K. GROCERY CHAIN PUSHING ITS VIDEO-ON-DEMAND SERVICE

Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain, has begun to role out an elaborate campaign to promote its video-on-demand Blinkbox service, which competes with Netflix and Amazon’s Lovefilm. The British trade publication Screen Daily reported today (Thursday) that the push coincides with the launch of Tesco’s inexpensive ($200) Hudl tablet, which has garnered positive reviews. (Tesco shoppers can use in-store vouchers to purchase the tablet for less than $100.) Blinkbox executive Douglas Davis told Screen Daily that the Blinkbox service will “start to fly” with the promotional campaign, which, from the beginning of this month, has already seen movie sales on Blinkbox rise 300-400 percent and sales of TV shows 1,000 percent. “Tesco is a great fit as an owner and we can leverage its data — there is going to be a real step change for the service,” Davis said.