Mega-retailer Walmart is finally lurching back into the streaming video business, unveiling a new service that makes Vudu streaming video available from its Walmart.com Web site. Walmart bought Vudu back in early 2010, and an eye towards reaping income from Vudu services integrated with set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and HDTVs sold through the company’s massive retail efforts. Now, the company is making Vudu’s library of movies and other video content available for online streaming, with rentals starting as low as 99 cents—although that scales up to as much as $5.99. Purchase prices for movies start at $4.99.
“At Walmart, one of our key priorities is to provide a continuous channel for our customers, from our stores to our powerful e-commerce and social media platforms,” said Walmart.com senior VP and general manager Steve Nave, in a statement. “With Vudu becoming increasingly popular among our customers, we’re providing them more access to enjoy this digital entertainment experience directly online at Walmart.com.”
Walmart is not offering a subscription service, a la NetFlix, that provides customers with all-they-can-eat streaming for a fixed price. Instead, Walmart’s online video offerings take an approach like Apple’s iTunes store, where customers pay for content on an item-by-item basis.
As part of the launch, customers will be able to vote on Facebook for a new release title that will be available for customers to rent for just 99 cents: folks just need to log into Facebook and “like” the title they want to see get the discount treatment.
Wal-Mart, long the nation's leading seller of DVDs, signaled its intent to double-down on digital movie distribution in February 2010, when it spent a reported $100 million to acquire online video service Vudu, a Silicon Valley startup that was gradually being added to home entertainment devices.
Since the acquisition, Vudu has been able to leverage Wal-Mart's clout with manufacturers to incorporate its service into more than 300 consumer electronics products, including Internet-connected television sets, Blu-ray disc players and the Sony PlayStation 3 game console.
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