February 28th, 2010 
Cliff Riseborough 
Logo unfamiliar? It belongs to Vudu, a company with a library of 16,000 HD movies viewers can buy or rent via their broadband Internet connection.
Oh, and Wal-Mart just announced that their purchase of Vudu is imminent.
Yes, the nation’s #1 seller of DVDs is entering the ‘buy online’ marketplace, tired of losing business to Netflix and the like. Where they take it from this nascent beginning is the question.
Do they switch to a subscription model from the pay-per-flick system currently in place in order to directly challenge Netflix? Do they use distribution contracts with electronics companies to begin pushing Vudu ‘package deals’ with DVD players and/or television sets? And what exactly is Wal-Mart’s relationship with major Hollywood film studios like…can they get favourable distribution deals, or will they be restricted in terms of new release rights as Netflix and Apple are?
What we do know is that Wal-Mart and Best Buy (who will be offering movie-download software with every web-capable device bought in US stores) both seem to think that web-distribution is the way to go for the movie business. The surge in popularity of Netflix and Apple seem to indicate the same. Does Hollywood agree?
Posted in 
Tags: 
