Tesco has bought an 80 per cent stake in the movie streaming service Blinkbox for an undisclosed sum.

In other words, Tesco will become a competitor to Amazon's Lovefilm and will offer films to buy and rent, both physically in-store and virtually over the net.

"The acquisition of Blinkbox, together with a range of other services currently in development, means we can link physical purchase of a product to the building of digital collections in a new and seamless way." said CEO Richard Brasher.

Blinkbox runs on PC, Mac and PS3 as well as a range of tablets and IPTVs. More than two million people use the service on a monthly basis and over 9,000 movie titles are available.

Michael Cornish, CEO of Blinkbox, says the company will retain its branding and reckons the move will increase customer numbers though Tesco's Clubcard holders. Every little helps ... ®