Tablets help blinkbox to record breaking Xmas
January 10, 2014
The boom in tablets has helped movie and TV streaming service blinkbox to a successful festive season, with sales up 245 per cent year on year over the Christmas period.
The surge fuelled by pre-Christmas sales of tablets such as Tesco’s own Hudl, which features apps for the blinkbox entertainment services. Sales on mobile devices, mainly tablets, were up 674 per cent versus the previous year.
The strong Christmas capped off a record breaking year which saw blinkbox outperform the digital video market.
The top three titles over the Christmas period, in order, were Elysium, Man of Steel and Despicable Me 2.
The biggest day for the service over the Christmas period – and blinkbox’s biggest sales day ever – was New Year’s Day, which saw an increase of 266 per cent versus the same day last year.
As well as tablets and games consoles, Internet connected TVs offering access to blinkbox showed strong growth – with sales up 465 per cent year on year.
Sales via mobile devices (including tablets), games consoles, connected TVs and set top boxes now account for over 65 per cent of sales on blinkbox, overtaking PC sales for the first time.
Michael Comish, Group Digital Officer at Tesco and co-founder of blinkbox, comments: “This Christmas, Brits have really switched on to enjoying the latest movies and TV on demand via their various connected devices. 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.”