James R | On 01, Oct 2014

Tesco will close Clubcard TV on Tuesday 28th October.

The service offered free online movie and TV shows exclusively to Tesco Clubcard customers, much like a subscription video on-demand packaage but without the monthly costs. The platform was powered by blinkbox, the pay-per-view service owned by Tesco, which saw a surge in users last year when it snapped up the exclusive first-stream rights to Game of Thrones Season 3. It currently has Season 4 (non-exclusively) available for download before its release on DVD and Blu-ray next year.

While Clubcard TV was free, though, its popularity never took off compared to blinkbox. As a result, Tesco will close the service this month.

“We have taken the decision to close the Clubcard TV service,” the retailer announced on its help site, “which means that unfortunately you won’t be able to watch the library of movies and TV on the service from 28th October. Until then everything will carry on as normal, so there’s still time to finish off a series or catch a movie.”

“We’ve learnt a lot since launching Clubcard TV in March 2013,” Tesco admitted, “and whilst many enjoyed our free service, we weren’t getting the level of repeat usage we had hoped for. You can still access entertainment through blinkbox Movies which offers the latest blockbuster films and hit TV shows without subscription. You can rent or buy and watch instantly on loads of devices.”

Tesco is still keen to link its Clubcard customers with its digital media arm, though. It previously announced a scheme that would give customers a free digital copy of any DVD purchase from Tesco made using a Clubcard. While that scheme has also ended, blinkbox continues to offer Clubcard points on all movie rentals and downloads.

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