Electronics manufacturers and retailers have begun to prepare for the death of the DVD as sales of the physical format continue to plunge.

This week Best Buy, one of the world’s biggest retailers of consumer electronics, announced plans to push consumers away from its stores’ DVD aisles by making it easier for them to rent and buy movies and TV shows over high-speed internet connections.

Ways to download or stream movies are proliferating via gaming consoles and set-top boxes and TV manufacturers are also introducing ways for consumers to get streaming content on to their bigger screens in the corner of the living room.

Even manufacturers backing the Blu-ray format for high-definition movies are hedging their bets by introducing Blu-ray players that can also show internet video.

Best Buy, which will open stores in Britain next year, said it was setting up its digital delivery service in partnership with CinemaNow, which has deals with the main movie studios.

The software making it possible to shop CinemaNow’s video library will be included on all the web-connected devices sold in Best Buy’s 1,000-plus US stores. That means consumers who buy flat-panel TVs, Blu-ray players, personal computers and mobile phones from Best Buy would be able to get downloads of videos the same day they are released on DVD.

The alliance marks the latest step away from the DVD format. Consumers are getting more ways of finding home entertainment with just a few clicks instead of travelling to a video rental store or waiting for a disc to be delivered through the post.

Apple’s iTunes online movies, Amazon and DVD-by-mail pioneer Netflix have all been winning fans with digital delivery systems, while Blockbuster has a deal with CinemaNow that lets people rent movies over the internet.

Last month Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix, predicted that his company would deliver more movies by streaming, rather than physical format, within two years.

In the US, total disc sales, including DVDs and Blu-ray, fell 13.9 per cent in the three months to September.

Netflix said 42 per cent of subscribers streamed at least 15 minutes of video through its internet-viewing service during the last quarter, up from 22 per cent at the same time last year.

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