Tsutaya kicks off acTVila

Rental chain offers video content portal

By MARK SCHILLING

TOKYO -- Tsutaya, operator of Japan's largest CD and DVD rental chain, will launch a pay service on acTVila, a video contents portal, the company has announced.

Called Tsutaya TV, the service will begin on March 1. Initial offerings will be limited to free broadcasts of pic trailers and other content, but in one to three months the service will start beaming pay broadcasts of foreign pics and dramas.

Launched in July 2006 with backing from Matsushita, Sony and other Japanese electronics giants, AcTVila Corporation started broadcasting the acTVila service in Sept. 2007. Viewers can view acTVila on their home TVs, instead of a PC, using a special monitor, broadband router and LAN cable.