Blinkbox sales up 245% over Christmas

Tesco-owned TV and movie streaming service Blinkbox claims it had a “record breaking” Christmas, with sales up by 245% year-on-year over the festive period.

The UK online store claimed that a surge in pre-Christmas tablet sales helped boost the figures, with sales on mobile devices – mainly tablets – up 674% compared to the previous year.

Blinkbox said that sales via mobile and tablets, games consoles, connected TVs and set-top boxes now account for over 65% of sales on Blinkbox, overtaking PC sales for the first time.

“This Christmas Brits have really switched on to enjoying the latest movies and TV on demand via their various connected devices,” said Blinkbox co-founder and Tesco group digital officer, Michael Comish.

“The availability of affordable tablets like Tesco’s Hudl means that the latest and greatest movies and TV are at the fingertips of more people than ever. We expect to see further growth in tablets, games consoles and Smart TVs in 2014 and will be focusing hard on bringing access to great entertainment into more and more homes via the most popular devices.”

Blinkbox said that its biggest day over the Christmas period – and the company’s biggest sales day to date – was New Year’s Day, which saw an increase of 266% compared to the same day a year earlier.

The BBC similarly said earlier this month that New Year’s Day was the best day ever for the iPlayer with 11 million TV and radio programme requests lodged on the BBC’s catch-up service.