Barnes And Noble To Launch Brand New "Nook Video" In North America This Fall (Autumn) With A Little Help From Nickelodeon

From Engadget:

Barnes & Noble launching Nook Video this fall with a little help from HBO, Sony, Disney, Viacom, more

We caught wind of an upcoming video offering from Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks back, as part of a tip on new tablet offerings from the company. And while we've yet to hear anything official on the latter, this morning the bookstore pulled back the curtain on Nook Video, a new service boasting support from heavy hitters like HBO, Sony, Warner Brothers, Viacom and Disney. The fruits of those partnerships include standard and high-def movies and TV shows like The Avengers, Brave, The Amazing Spider-man, Breaking Bad, The Daily Show and Game of Thrones, which can be watched on Nooks, and non-Barnes & Noble tablets and smartphones, courtesy of a forthcoming free app from the retailer, letting you pick up where you left off on different devices.

The offering can also be linked to UltraViolet purchases, making it possible to add titles purchased with that feature logo to the Nook Cloud offering. Nook Video will be arriving in the US this fall, followed by a "holiday" release in the UK.

[Below is the original Barnes & Noble press release announcing the news]

NOOK Video to Premiere This Fall

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced its new NOOK Video offering will premiere this fall with blockbuster movies, classic films and original TV shows from major studios including HBO, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, STARZ, Viacom and Warner Bros. Entertainment, plus favorite movies from The Walt Disney Studios. Barnes & Noble, which is one of the country's leading DVD and Blu-ray Disc™ retailers, will now offer an expansive digital collection of popular films and television shows to be enjoyed anywhere on NOOKs, TVs, tablets and smartphones. Barnes & Noble is also planning to make available content from other leading studios to be announced.

Beginning this fall in the US and coming this holiday season to the UK, NOOK Video will offer customers the opportunity to shop an extensive and diverse digital collection of standard and high-definition movies and TV shows available for streaming and download. Through deals with these and other major studios, the NOOK Video catalog will offer something for everyone in the family to enjoy, including Disney-Pixar's Brave and Toy Story 3, Marvel's The Avengers, 21 Jump Street, Awkward, The Artist, Breaking Bad, Dora the Explorer, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Spartacus, Magic City, The Walking Dead, True Blood®, Game of Thrones®, Harry Potter movies, The Dark Knight, The Hangover and many more.

Videos that are streamed and downloaded from the NOOK Store will be stored safely and securely in the NOOK Cloud™, so NOOK Video content can be enjoyed on NOOKs and other devices via soon-to-launch free NOOK Video apps. As with the NOOK Reading apps, NOOK Video apps will seamlessly work together so customers can pick up watching right where they left off on any of their connected devices.

NOOK Video will also integrate a customer's compatible physical DVD and Blu-ray Disc purchases and digital video collection across their devices through UltraViolet™. Customers will soon be able to easily link their UltraViolet accounts to the NOOK Cloud allowing them to view their previously and newly purchased UltraViolet-enabled movies and TV shows across NOOK devices and NOOK Video apps, as well as through third party applications. In addition to purchasing a digital version via NOOK Video, customers can shop for DVDs and Blu-ray discs with the UltraViolet logo in Barnes & Noble and other retail stores, add them to their digital collection, and instantly watch compatible titles from the NOOK Cloud to enjoy wherever they go and however they choose.

"As one of the world's largest retailers of physical video discs and digital copyrighted content, our new NOOK Video service will give our customers another way to be entertained with a vast and growing digital video collection, as part of our expansive NOOK Store," said William J. Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. "The launch of our new digital video service with our long-time studio partners allows us to bring award-winning current and classic movies, TV shows, documentaries and more to millions of customers' screens, coming soon."

"With the great success of the NOOK tablet and Barnes & Noble's in-store promotional efforts, we are very excited to bring our acclaimed programming to the NOOK Store," said Henry McGee, President, HBO Home Entertainment. "NOOK Video offers a customized and convenient way for entertainment enthusiasts to own award-winning shows such as Game of Thrones®, Boardwalk Empire®, GirlsSM, and True Blood® and enjoy them across a multitude of devices."

"The NOOK is a dynamic tablet with a beautiful display and we are excited to provide content from Viacom's media networks on this enhanced portable, platform" said Denise Denson, Executive Vice President of Content Distribution and Marketing at Viacom. "This is another opportunity for our audiences to enjoy their favorite shows from across MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike and BET wherever they go."

"NOOK Video provides customers a simple way to buy movies digitally and UltraViolet brings unmatched convenience and portability to those purchases, allowing consumers to access their digital collection from almost anywhere," said Thomas Gewecke, President, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. "With Barnes & Noble's in-store, online and digital promotions many consumers will learn how to maximize their entertainment using all the benefits UltraViolet provides."

Also, from Multichannel News:

Barnes & Noble Going Over-the-Top With Nook Video

Barnes & Noble -- in a bid to keep pace with tablet rivals Apple, Amazon.com, Google and Microsoft -- plans a fall launch of Nook Video, featuring movies and original TV shows from networks and studios including HBO, Starz Entertainment, Viacom, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Warner Bros. Entertainment and The Walt Disney Studios.

The Nook Video service will offer transactional content like iTunes, and is not a subscription-based service like Netflix or Amazon.com’s Prime Instant Video. Nook Video will be accessible via Barnes & Noble’s Nook tablets, as well as TVs, other tablets and smartphones. The company said it has other content deals in the works.

The service, launching this fall in the U.S. and during the holiday season in the U.K., will provide standard-definition and HD movies and TV shows for streaming and download.

The Nook Video lineup will offer Disney-Pixar's Brave and Toy Story 3 and Marvel's The Avengers, along with other selections including 21 Jump Street, Awkward, The Artist, Breaking Bad, Dora the Explorer, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Spartacus, Magic City, The Walking Dead, True Blood, Game of Thrones, The Dark Knight, The Hangover and Warner Bros.' Harry Potter movies.

In addition, Nook Video will integrate a customer's compatible physical DVD and Blu-ray Disc purchases and digital video collection across their devices through UltraViolet, the “digital locker” technology and service backed by Hollywood studios and others.

“As one of the world’s largest retailers of physical video discs and digital copyrighted content, our new Nook Video service will give our customers another way to be entertained with a vast and growing digital video collection, as part of our expansive Nook Store,” Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said in announcing the service. “The launch of our new digital video service with our longtime studio partners allows us to bring award-winning current and classic movies, TV shows, documentaries and more to millions of customers’ screens, coming soon.”

Viacom sees Nook Video as “another opportunity for our audiences to enjoy their favorite shows from across MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike and BET wherever they go,” Denise Denson, executive vice president of content distribution and marketing at Viacom, said in a statement. “The Nook is a dynamic tablet with a beautiful display and we are excited to provide content from Viacom's media networks on this enhanced portable, platform.”

As with the Nook Reading apps, the Nook Video content and apps are stored in the cloud, letting customers pick up watching where they left off on any of their connected devices. The Nook tablet already provides an app for Netflix subscribers to access streaming video.