Walmart enters the streaming video business

Walmart wants to make its website, like its stores, one-stop-shopping by adding a streaming video service. Image: Walmart Stores/Flickr/CC BY

In a move to further bolster its all-in-one online shopping strategy, Walmart is now offering movies, streaming directly from the company website.  Streaming video is becoming an increasingly popular way to market visual media.

Walmart launches new service today

A year and a half ago, the world’s largest retailer purchased VUDU, a video streaming service. Tuesday, the company launched the service, now fully integrated into the Walmart website. The site offers 20,000 titles that can be rented on DVD or viewed streaming instantly on internet-ready devices.

Walmart senior Vice President and general manager, Steve Nave, said that making movies available online fits perfectly with the company’s strategy to make its website a “seamless continuous shopping service.”

Competing with Netflix

The Arkansas-based box store giant hopes to take some steam out of Netflix, which has prospered during the recession with its live streaming video service. Unlike Netflix, however, the new Walmart service will not be offered through a subscription. Individual movies can be rented from $1 to $5.99 per movie, either on DVD or directly streaming on any compatible internet device. The DVD service is available by mail or for store pickup. Movies can also be purchased for $4.99 or more on the site.

Not Walmart’s first foray

This is not Walmart first foray into movie rentals. It previously offered a DVD by mail subscription service. That service, unable to compete with the more established Netflix, ended in February. Most Walmart stores now offer low-cost movie rentals through Coinstar’s Redbox kiosks.

The future of movie distribution?

Walmart is but the latest online service to make video entertainment available at the push of a button. It joins Hulu, Amazon, Apple and many others in pioneering a relatively new way to distribute media that many feel may soon become the norm.

Netflix prices go up

Walmart’s announcement comes right on the heels of industry leader Netflix‘s second rate hike in the last eight months. As of March, Netflix had 22.8 million subscribers in the U.S. alone.

Sources

News-Record
NPR
Daily Finance  

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