After dabbling in movie download tests, Walmart is now jumping into the movie and television download business head first, and will launch their new site this month (Nov 2007) .
Television networks who?ve agreed to provide content include Fox, CW and Viacom?s MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Logo and VH1. The television download market is currently dominated by iTunes.
Prices for movies will be $10-$20. Television shows will be $2. Downloading and watching content will require a Windows PC, as with all of the services mentioned above except iTunes.
Will This Be Successful?
Walmart in the past has had mixed results for online initiatives. They gave up on the postal movie rental market when they couldn?t make headway against Lovefilm and Netflix. In this case, however, there is no established player to try to kill. The movie download market is in its nascent stage and anyone can win. Vizumi film downloads is currently the number one website for this service along with CinemaNow and MovieLink.
iTunes still has the only service that works cross-platform, plays on an iPod and now on the living room television with Apple TV. And they already dominate the television download market. Walmart will not be able to easily hurt iTunes in the short term.
Not forgetting that Netflix has already released an excellent movie and television download service, and Joost is another service coming soon. None of these companies are going to lie down in the face of competition from Walmart, and they know that Walmart will bail out of markets that they can?t dominate.
All of this is fantastic for us, the consumer as prices are still way too much as movie downloads are still more expensive than simply buying a DVD. This blog will keep you posted on this ever changing and exciting market. Stay Tuned!!!!
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