It appears that Netflix has more competition, and Sears is playing catch up with other retailers.  Sears and Sonic Solutions announced today that they have partnered up to provide Alphaline Entertainment, the newest offering of downloaded entertainment on the internet.   

Sonic Solutions provides content delivery through the RoxioNow Platform for the now live service. Sears and Kmart customers will be able to access movies and television shows from the newest online movie download service the same day they are released to DVD and Blu-ray Disc. 

"Collaborating with Sonic provides a great opportunity for Sears and Kmart to launch digital services for customers seeking even faster access to the latest in home entertainment experiences," said Karen Austin, President of Consumer Electronics for Sears and Kmart. "We'll continue to increase the reach and flexibility of the Alphaline Entertainment service by providing consumers on-demand access to the latest entertainment from a range of home and mobile electronics."

Sonic has already teamed up with Best Buy to put its movie library into the store's Web-connected gadgets and Sears competitor Wal-Mart just bought Vudu, a service that streams movies to internet-connected TVs.

The Sears/Sonic team has a multi-year agreement and is setting-up plans for a multi-phase rollout that will also make the service available on portable media players, mobile phones and high-definition televisions.  According to the company, the service is being embedded in chips for TVs, mobile phones, Blu-ray Disc and other connected devices.