Tesco promotes Blinkbox founder Michael Comish to group digital chief
Tesco has promoted Blinkbox founder Michael Comish to the role of group digital officer of the supermarket.
Comish, who founded the video-on-demand platform Blinkbox, which was later acquired by Tesco, will be responsible for driving the supermarket’s multichannel strategy.
This will involve leading a new team of more than 300 people, with focus on distilling a more “customer-led approach” to online services.
He will be located in Tesco’s digital entertainment services hub in central London, also home to Tesco’s Clubcard TV service, powered by Blinkbox, available exclusively to Clubcard members.
The launch of Clubcard TV marks the latest step in Tesco’s plans to integrate its digital entertainment services, including Blinkbox and Mobcast, into the overall business, which has already seen it work with Blinkbox to launch a physical-online movie bundle service exclusively for Clubcard account holders last year.
This involved rewarding Clubcard customers who bought physical DVDs and Blu-rays in-store with online access to the same movie via the Blinkbox service.
Comish founded Blinkbox in 2006 as a pay per view service, meaning it can operate outside of the fiercely competitive subscriptions rights windows in which rivals Lovefilm and Netflix must battle Sky, which still dominates movie rights for new releases.
Tesco bought the service, which is available on games consoles, set-top boxes and smart TVs as well as mobile devices, in 2011.