According to The Hollywood Reporter, U.S. electronics chain Best Buy is going to launch their planned online service CinemaNow this month. This will enable consumers to buy, rent and download movies and television shows.

Best Buy hopes this will allow them to compete better with established online media giants like Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc's iTunes store and services like Netflix Inc and Wal-Mart's recently purchased Vudu service.

The new digital video platform is based on Sonic Solutions' Roxio CinemaNow service. It is going to be built into devices sold at its stores. These range from television sets to Blu-ray disc players. It is also going to be available on a host of other devices from other manufacturers later this year.

Customers can access it via their computers through the CinemaNow website.

Best Buy's goal is to "provide access to thousands of new movies, independent films, and older catalog movies, with some new titles available on the same day as the comparable DVD goes on sale."