Dixons to Launch On-Demand Service

LONDON: Dixons, the U.K.’s biggest electrical retailer, is setting up an on-demand film and TV service, KnowHow Movies, which will feature content from such partners as Disney, Pixar, Warner Bros. and others.

Launching on Thursday, the service will operate on a pay-per-view basis, allowing film lovers to get titles at the same time they are released on DVD. KnowHow Movies will also feature content from Momentum Pictures, which handles the U.K. rights for films such as The King’s Speech, the Swedish trilogy based on Stieg Larsson’s Millennium novels and Lost in Translation. KnowHow will initially launch on PC and Apple computers with a six-month plan to roll it out to as many platforms as possible. The plan is to make KnowHow available on Android and Apple mobile devices by the end of April, to connected TVs such as Samsung and LG for June and consoles such as the PlayStation and XBox in August and September. The series will be promoted through its 600-strong Currys and PC World stores nationwide.