Microsoft, after nearly two decades, has exited the business of selling digital TV and movies.
Without advance warning, Microsoft’s Movies & TV app as of Friday has stopped sales and rentals for movies and TV shows. “Important: Microsoft no longer offers new entertainment content for purchase, including movies and TV shows, on Microsoft.com, Microsoft Store on Windows, and the Microsoft Store on Xbox,” the tech giant says in a support notice on its site. A similar notice appears on the Xbox support site.
The notice did not provide any explanation for the decision. A Microsoft rep declined to provide further comment when contacted by Variety. The company’s discontinuation of movie and TV sales and rentals was spotted earlier by tech site Windows Central.
Customers who have previously purchased content through the Microsoft Movies & TV storefront can continue to access it on an Xbox or Windows device, the notice says. Microsoft is not offering refunds; citing the Microsoft Store Terms of Sale, “Movies and TV shows are ineligible for refunds.”
Microsoft originally launched a movie and TV storefront for its Zune portable device (a would-be competitor to Apple’s iPod) in 2006. That evolved into the Xbox Video store in 2012 before getting renamed Microsoft Movies & TV in 2015.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s support site says users cannot directly transfer your purchased TV shows and movies to another service. U.S. customers can sign up for the Movies Anywhere cloud service to “connect select purchased movies” with participating retailers, according to Microsoft. Those include Apple, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango, Google Play/YouTube and Comcast’s Xfinity, according to the Movies Anywhere website. Studios that participate in Movies Anywhere, which is operated by Disney, are Disney/Fox, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros.