BSkyB taking on iTunes with movie download service

BSkyB will launch a new download to own service dubbed ‘buy and keep’. It will allow subscribers to buy movies and sit alongside the UK pay TV operator’s existing pay per view service, Andrew Griffith told delegates at the Guardian Changing Media Summit in London.

Sky is keen to break into the growing UK download to own market and build on its digital movie rentals business. It places it in competition with Apple’s iTunes and Tesco’s Blinkbox in the download market.

Sky did not say which studios and content owners it was working. Buy and keep will launch within weeks.

Sky is the latest in a series of service providers to announce download-to-keep services, including BT, which launched its own service on the YouView platform in February.