Fandango buys online video retailer M-Go to boost ‘super ticket’ sales

Online ticket seller Fandango is getting into the digital home video business.

The Los Angeles-based company on Friday said it is acquiring M-Go — a site that lets users purchase and rent digital movies and TV shows online — in a move to bolster its perks for ticket buyers.

Financial details were not disclosed.

M-Go, based in Culver City, competes with online retailers including iTunes and Wal-Mart’s Vudu. It launched about three years ago as a joint venture between Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation.

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Fandango, owned by Comcast Corp., said the acquisition will allow it to more easily create deals that bundle movie tickets with digital downloads for the home. These so-called super tickets let customers pre-order digital downloads of the movie they’re seeing in the theater.

Super tickets have been a part of Fandango’s business in the past, though the company has had to use outside retailers to sell the digital copies.

The “SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” super ticket, for example, included a pre-order of the new animated film, plus a copy of the previous SpongeBob movie, for $15 more than the ticket price.

Studios and movie theaters have experimented with super tickets for their hoped-for blockbusters as a way to boost home entertainment sales and provide cinemas with an additional revenue stream.

Fandango has been expanding as more cinemas adopt online ticket sales. The company said it added 1,600 U.S. screens in 2015, bringing its total reach to 27,000.

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