Sears today announced the launch of its new online movie downloading service called Alphaline Entertainment. It has similar functionality like Amazon’s Video on Demand service. Alphaline lets you buy or rent movies the same day as they are released on DVD making it a real challenge to Netflix and other competitors.
Alphaline is run on the RoxioNow platform and the best part is that it has no subscription fees unlike Netflix and other streaming services. Users pay one-time fees to either rent videos for 24 hours or buy them from the vast selection. Typical rentals cost around $4 while most purchases are between $10 and $20.
The movies can be watched on a computer, via RoxioNow-capable Blu-ray player or an Xbox 360. There is no support for Macs yet or any of the mobile devices either. Sears and Sonic Solutions, the creators of RoxioNow said that they plan to add more support for portable devices and mobile phones.