Sainsburys to stop supporting ebooks

[Brian G Turner]

Just got an email from Sainsburys saying that they're shutting down their digital division, which - among other things - includes no longer supporting ebooks after November this year:

Dear Customer,

We are writing to tell you about an important change to Sainsbury’s Entertainment on Demand.

Over the last four years we have enjoyed providing our customers with eBooks, MP3 music, digital magazines, and movies and TV on demand. We've made some great progress and learnt a lot about the digital entertainment market. However, following a detailed review of our service we have made the difficult decision to close Sainsbury's Entertainment on Demand and focus on our core businesses.

We'd like to make the process for you as straightforward as possible. Below you will find details of what will be happening and when, for each entertainment product area.

Movies & TV
As of now you can no longer buy, rent or watch any movie or TV content. We will refund you for any movies or TV content you've bought to own, as well as any active rentals you have. Any rentals that fall outside of either their 48-hour viewing period or 30-day active viewing window will not be refunded. We'll let you know of any refunds due and how they will be made by 15th October 2016.

eBooks
As of 1st October 2016 you will no longer be able to buy any eBooks from us although you will be able to continue reading eBooks on our apps until 30th November 2016. On 1st December 2016 the site will close and our reading apps will no longer be supported.

You will have the opportunity to transfer your eBook library to Kobo, a leading global eBook provider, who will support your eBook library in accordance with their terms and conditions. If you don't already have a Kobo account you will need to set one up. We will e-mail you by 25th October 2016 explaining how this will work and what you will need to do. We will not be issuing any refunds for eBook purchases.

Digital Magazines
As of 1st October 2016 you will no longer be able to buy digital magazines from us although you will be able to continue reading digital magazines on our apps until 30th November 2016. On 1st December 2016 the site will close and our reading apps will no longer be supported. We will refund all digital magazine purchases, we'll let you know by email of any refunds due and how they will be made by 15th October 2016.

MP3 Music
As of 1st October 2016 you will no longer be able to buy music from us although you will be able to continue to listen to music on our apps until 30th November 2016. On 1st December 2016 when our site closes, our music apps will no longer be supported and you will not be able to download your music library from us. We strongly recommend that you download your music purchases before the end of November so that you can play them on an alternative digital music platform (e.g. iTunes or Google Play). We'll email you reminders as we get closer to the end of November. We will not be issuing any refunds for MP3 music purchases.

Thank you for your support and custom over the last four years. We understand that this is disappointing news and are sorry for the inconvenience caused.

If you need any further information, please visit our FAQs where further help is on hand.

Yours sincerely,

Sainsbury’s Entertainment on Demand

20th September 2016

On the other hand, Sainsburys clearly had no idea what to do with digital, other than have some because "digital is cool". At no point did Sainsburys ever try and compete to offer a better experience or a better-priced digital service than anyone else.

Unfortunately, their poor understanding of how to work with digital now leads to a poor customer experience for Sainsburys customers.

What's even more astonishing is that they are simply handing over their ebook customers to Kobo, despite its declining support as well.

The whole fiasco underlines that if you want digital, go to a specialist digital provider to rent your digital content - whether TV, films, music, or ebooks. Which pretty much means Amazon.

Again, another example of corporate business not understanding the 21st century, and handing over dominance on a plate to Amazon.

 

[chopper]

for reasons, i can't say too much other than that i'm not very surprised by this. you have a lot of very valid and correct points.

 

[crystal haven]

I also got this email. My small amount of ebooks with be dizzy because they got moved from Nook to Sainsburys, and now they are going to Kobo.