Sears Launches Movie Downloading Service

Watch out Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon.com (AMZN), here comes ... Sears? Yes, Sears Holdings (SHLD) on Tuesday launched an online movie-download service that pits it against those Web giants in the digital home-entertainment market.

Sonic Solutions's (SNIC) RoxioNow platform, which can deliver movies and other content to a variety of Web devices, will power the long-planned service, called Alphaline Entertainment. The service enables customers to download movies the same day they become available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Sears Holdings, which owns both the Sears and Kmart retail chains, signed an agreement with Sonic earlier this year. It joins a growing group of offline retailers that have been entering the digital-delivery market, which is largely dominated by Netflix today. Best Buy (BBY), for example, also uses Sonic's Roxio platform for its CinemaNow service.

Sears shares rose 1.6% to close at $70.02 on Tuesday. Netflix investors apparently weren't scared off by the news: Its shares grew 2% to close at $183.67.