Back in 2005, Wal-Mart Stores decided its venture to rent movies online wasn't going where it wanted so it made a deal to move its 100,000 or so subscribers to Netflix, which, in turn, sent its subscribers back to Walmart.com if they were looking to buy DVDs.
In 2007, the retailer took another shot at the movie rental business using a download service with Hewlett-Packard. That test was finished inside of a year of getting its start.
Now, Wal-Mart is hoping the third time's a charm with the acquisition of Vudu, which uses digital technology inside set top boxes and blu ray players to allow downloads for either purchase or rental. Vudu has licensing deals with almost all the major studios as well as independents, giving customers access to roughly 16,000 titles. The company charges $19.99 to own recently released films and $3.99 to rent.
"The real winner here is the customer," Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman for Wal-Mart, said in a press release. "Combining Vudu's unique digital technology and service with Wal-Mart's retail expertise and scale will provide customers with unprecedented access to home entertainment options as they migrate to a digital environment."
"We are excited about the opportunity to take our company's vision to the next level," said Edward Lichty, Vudu executive vice president. "Vudu's services and Apps platform will give Walmart a powerful new vehicle to offer customers the content they want in a way that expands the frontier of quality, value and convenience."
Vudu apps allow consumers to receive hundreds of streaming applications and services to their TVs and Blu-ray players that are connected to the internet. The company has partnered with companies including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, The New York Times and The Associated Press on the service.
Discussion Questions: Will Wal-Mart Stores' purchase of Vudu make it a force in the movie rental business? Will it speed the move away from physical DVD rentals to online downloads?