HMV heads for the big screen with online film rentals

The troubled entertainment retailer HMV is to take on Lovefilm and NetFlix, which will debut in the UK next year, by launching an online film rental service.

HMV has teamed up with FilmFlex Movies, the biggest supplier of video-on-demand rental services outside of the US, and started selling its movie on-demand service from yesterday.

Mark Hodgkinson, HMV's marketing and e-commerce director, said: "The time is right to include a digital service into our own offer."

HMV on demand will initially be targeted at its two million loyalty card scheme members, but the group will start to market it more extensively after Christmas.

HMV made pre-tax profits of just £2.6m for the year to 30 April.