Sky Store Buy & Keep one year on – now the complete way to buy movies

It’s been almost a year since we launched Sky Store Buy & Keep - our foray into the movie retail market — to Sky customers. Before, Sky Store was a rental-only film service but at launch Buy & Keep allowed you to purchase the latest movies digitally in HD, keep them on your Sky+ box while also receiving the DVD direct to your door. 

It’s been a great success. Since its launch in April 2014, Sky Store has regularly been the number one digital retailer for new movie releases. There are nearly 1,000 movies available to buy plus over 1,700 titles to rent. In the six months to the end of December 2014, Sky Store revenues were up 90 per cent year on year, largely driven by Buy & Keep.

Our thinking was simple. We knew that DVDs are a major part of a home entertainment market worth around £1.6bn in the UK, and that 50% of sales are to Sky customers. So we knew Sky customers loved owning movies and TV content but what’s exciting is that we are growing this ownership market.  Customers who previously hadn’t bought or rented films for ages love Buy & Keep.  A third of customers who bought The Wolf of Wall Street hadn’t bought a DVD in the last 12 months. A quarter of customers who bought the Lego Movie hadn’t even rented or bought a movie in the previous year.  Our studio partners agree we are growing the market and are really supportive of our efforts, giving us more marketing support than ever; you may have seen the Sky Store tagging on TV ads and billboards.

We think we can make the service even more attractive so from today we are making Sky Store the most complete way to buy movies, not just for Sky customers but for all homes in the UK and Ireland. 

Sky customers will now be able to get a movie straight to their TV via their Sky+ box, stream or download to their compatible mobiles, tablets and laptops and receive the DVD in the post a few days later.  Who wouldn’t want to be able to access their DVD collection on the go?

We have also extended Buy & Keep to non-Sky customers for the first time. Previously they could just rent movies but now anyone accessing Skystore.com or the Sky Store App, or anyone with a NOW TV, Roku or YouView box will be able to buy the latest blockbusters to stream or download on any compatible device as well as getting the DVD.

You can read all about the new improved Sky Store Buy & Keep and the other exciting new features we are adding here. 

We won’t stop there of course. Plans are already underway to add Box Sets for both TV and movies to Sky Store Buy & Keep as well.