Nook Video set for fall premiere

Computerworld - Barnes & Noble Tuesday announced that Nook Video will premiere this fall in the U.S. and UK. The service will offer access to movies and TV shows for streaming and download.

In a statement, the bookseller said the videos will be stored securely in the Nook Cloud. The content will be available on the Nook Tablet and non-Nook devices via free Nook video apps that will be launched soon, it said.

The announcement underscores the importance of video content to users of an array of new tablet devices.

Barnes & Noble said its video content will be available across devices such as TVs and smartphones and will interoperate with digital video collections, such as UltraViolet.

A Netflix app already is a available in the Nook app store.

Barnes & Noble said the videos initially will come from HBO, Sony Pictures, STARZ, Viacom and Warner Brothers Entertainment. Some Disney movies will be available.

The maker of the Nook tablet didn't reveal any details about plans to unveil a rumored second-generation Nook device. Barnes & Noble's tablet is considered a strong competitor with Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD and Google's Nexus 7 tablets.

Amazon already has an instant video service which can be linked to its Amazon Prime service that costs $79 a year for access to some videos.

Barnes & Noble didn't offer pricing for the video content, but officials said videos would be priced individually and won't be distributed under a subscription service.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen, or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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