News: Walmart Considering Selling Vudu

[oneway23]

The world is moving towards streaming. This is nothing like when Walmart bought. If no buyer is found, they will simply shutter, just like Playstation Vue announced last week.

Even if we download our movies, good luck watching them after they shut the down the DRM server that authenticates all of our purchases.

[Robin]

Wasn't Playstation Vue... exclusively a streaming service though?

[Wasteland]

Wasn't Playstation Vue... exclusively a streaming service though?

Isn't that what Vudu is in a way? You can only use it to stream... lol... and it's nothing like Vue. Vue wanted to go with an odd title, where so many thought they had to have a Playstation just to use the service, then they lost tons of channels and kept raising the price of their packages, and people left them quickly. Vudu has been around longer, prob. has a much larger fan base, and everyone who uses Vudu knows why they are using it. I doubt it just get shut down if they don't find a buyer, they will likely keep it up and make changes, like getting rid of D2D, InstaWatch...

[oneway23]

It was, Robin. That is true. I guess I'm just a little fired up & annoyed by the condescending tone of the Engadget writer who wrote the report that I read.
I can't link it right now, but, it was essentially "who wants to line up to buy a service whose idea has passed?"

Made me feel like a moron for defending my investment in Vudu while my friends were pirating & ripping borrowed discs or buying 4k discs to rip them & return them to the store, while laughing at me and telling me that I was going to be sorry when Walmart closed the service "one day."

Didn't think it would be this soon

[Robin]

I get the anxiety, but I don't think we need to panic at this point. While subscription based streaming is popular right now I think there is still a big space for purchasing and renting, even Disney+ is not going to have theatrical Disney Movies available on release day, the only way to watch on release is to buy on a streaming service or buy physical media, the movie studios want it that way. XBox movies, Kaleidescape, and FandangoNow are still out there, not to mention Google, Apple, and Amazon. Granted it is the risk we all took when buying digital, but I remain confident that it is in no ones interest to have millions of users lose their entire movie libraries, it would shatter faith in digital purchases across the industry if a service as significant a player as Vudu just shutdown with no transition plan, Movies Anywhere exists partly to instill confidence in digital purchases. I don't think the comparisons to MP3 sites that have shut down are the same, as in most cases you could still download or burn your songs for use after the site went away.

[oneway23]

Great points, Robin. Thank you for being a voice of reason. There's also a good deal of anxiety from all of us over on DC Universe right now after the big HBO MAX announcement, plus, we Boomerang subscribers are also worried about our subs after HBO announced that Looney Toons will be on there as well. I'm just skittish now with this news on top of it. I feel like ever service I'm supporting is giving me a kick to the gut this week. LOL

Things are changing. I guess we'll just have to see what happens. I think the main lesson for everyone to take away here is that my entertainment budget needs to be cut down LOL

[jeremymc7]

Engadget has their version of the article include comments from Vudu management on the topic.

[mrewster]

Some random thoughts on this situation:

Every time someone comes to the forum & asks "What if VUDU shuts down?", the fallback answer has always been "WalMart owns Vudu, and WalMart isn't going anywhere." I guess no one ever gave any pause to think WalMart would bail on us.

This sale is being speculated apparently because all the streaming services are making more money than Vudu's sell-through option. While this is true, every new streaming service that is offered cuts into existing services. In 10 years, when there are 50 streaming services each offering their own "exclusive content", how many of them do they think customers will opt into? Another factor is that once you have any streaming service for any length of time, you struggle to find something to watch. I've subscribed to Netflix for 10 years and honestly wonder why I still pay for it. I hardly ever watch it, while I watch VUDU almost every day.

Why doesn't VUDU just offer an optional subscription package to go along with their existing format? They essentially already do it with their "Movies On Us" feature. They must make decent money from that programming the way they offer $2-$3 credits for watching a single movie.

Speaking of "exclusive content", did they really think Mr. Mom was gonna be some immediate game-changer for them? The show is terrible, I couldn't even get through the first one.

If this sale becomes an eventuality, I think I speak for everyone here when I say "VUDU, keep your customers informed." They way they shut down linking accounts, and the way they handled UV going away was a slap in the face to their paying customers.

[VuduAddict]

The way Wal-Mart handled their MP3 store shutdown in the past does make me worry about this situation. Movies I was going to buy on Vudu yesterday ended up becoming iTunes purchases. I spent a lot on TV shows earlier this week and last week here, and I wish I could get a refund on my recent unwatched VUDU purchases, but I'm sure I won't. :/ People can try and spin this as a good thing, but the reality is that it isn't a good thing at all. If a major retailer like Wal-Mart can't make it work, what other company would? There are very few options, and it doesn't mean long-term survival either if purchased, it could be handled even worse and we really would lose all our purchases. Even if Vudu ends up continuing operations, I won't buy anything that isn't Movies Anywhere, especially since we won't know what will happen to our purchases if they do shut down. Unless Wal-Mart announced long-term commitment to the service, I don't see myself continuing to buy very much if at all. It's been a sad week, Vudu has been my favorite service and I try and support the service with purchases every single week, but clearly Wal-Mart doesn't have loyalty to it's customers if even considering abandoning ship.

[sankoni]

I was really mad that the adult movies were pulled when they took over also, censorship is never a good thing.

Vudu used to offer adult movies? As in XXX adult movies? If so, whoa...mind blown.

Question though, for people who made such purchases, are those titles still in their libraries or are they just gone? Or did ownership rights get transferred to a different adult streaming service?

Would anyone be able to provide a link (or Vudu content ID) to one such title? I would just like to see one such listing out of curiosity. I've always thought the one thing Vudu needs is adult films.


EDIT: I found an interesting article on Techcrunch about this: techcrunch.com/2010/02/24/walmart-vudu-adult/

So apparently the adult titles were indeed completely purged and customers received full refunds for their purchases. Interesting.

[jeremymc7]

If a major retailer like Wal-Mart can't make it work, what other company would?

Obviously UV couldn't make it work, even with major studio support.

And let's not forget that Target and Best Buy also had their own services, not to mention Flixster (US) and so many others; and couldn't make it work.

I have at least several hundred films that are not MA, and many weren't UV either and are trapped in Vudu.

[sankoni]

A week later that hidden channel disappeared from my roku. It was weird having a pink cursor highlight the titles in the app.

It's like they were considering between two options: re-branding or selling. I guess earlier this week they finally decided which route to take. It's too bad too. I think re-branding might have made a big difference. I personally didn't like the idea of them re-branding themselves as "Walmart Video" but there is a lot to be said about brand recognition so in theory it's not a terrible idea.

What I think they should have done is tried to purchase an existing brand such as "Blockbuster Video" and used that to re-brand themselves. I think they probably would have gotten the IP cheap too since Dish Network is not currently doing anything with it. I think after all these years the average American is still more likely to recognize the Blockbuster brand than the Vudu brand.

However, the sad fact is that Walmart weighing their various options means that they clearly believe something needs to be done. It's all probably fallout from the Mr. Mom fiasco. Whoever thought that green-lighting that show was a good idea has no business working in entertainment. That show is so out-of-touch it's amazing anyone with half a brain would think investing in that made sense.

If Vudu does get sold I hope it's to someone with very deep pockets like Samsung or Facebook. Not Huawei. Then they can work on hiring someone who knows how to develop original content that doesn't make everyone cringe.

Okay, end of rant.

[Robin]

From a consumer standpoint UV and Movies Anywhere were very similar, UV died for a lot of reasons, but the basic idea of a digital locker for movie licenses still exists and MA is already having far more success than UV ever did with retailer adoption (Vudu basically was UV). There is still plenty of money to be made in movie sales and digital is the future, Disney still very much wants you to pay $25 for every new release, that is why they aren't putting all new releases on their $7 a month streaming service.

There is a reason Vudu came out on top of Target Ticket, CinemaNow, Flixter, MGO and all the others, Vudu was always way better both in selection, third party support, and the quality of their apps. These services were never in the same league as Vudu and only had a fraction of Vudu's users, they limped along because of UV support but most who tried them knew they didn't have a chance. When these services did shutdown, I believe they also had migration strategies, Target Ticket migrated user's libraries to CinemaNow, Flixter to Vudu, MGO to FandangoNow. This is no guarantee of course, but a complete shutdown of Vudu would be a far more shocking and scandalous because Vudu has been around for 10+ years, has millions of users, and likely has a sizable % of engaged users with 100+ movie/tv collections, perhaps even more as a % than Amazon or Google even. And that user base has value, if my collection migrates, I go where my collection goes, and spend money there to keep it all together.

I think subscription streaming is mostly impacting TV, which has never sold particularly well compared to movies both digitally and as physical media. Most people just aren't willing to spend $40+ for a season of some show, which is why the subscription model is attractive. The Theater-to-At Home Purchase-to-TV/Streaming model really hasn't changed much despite all the disruption in the industry. Subscription streaming is also still new with many companies spending billions on new original content (mostly TV), it remains to be seen what the return on those investments might be as the competition ramps up. Digital storefronts don't require those massive investments in original content, and even with MA, they can still compete on the quality of their streams and storefront experience, again an area where I feel that Vudu is a leader.

[jeremymc7]

It's like they were considering between two options: re-branding or selling. I guess earlier this week they finally decided which route to take. It's too bad too. I think re-branding might have made a big difference. I personally didn't like the idea of them re-branding themselves as "Walmart Video" but there is a lot to be said about brand recognition so in theory it's not a terrible idea.

Personally I was never a fan of WM being Vudu. From the start Vudu was pushed as a high end product. WM is in NO WAY associated with high end. I just accepted it as WM has deep pockets. But the topic of rebranding has come up many times over the years, be it public comments, surveys, or beta testing new websites. I've been 100% against using the WM name, or changing the interface to feel like a cheezy WM frontend. Over the years others closed the gap of Vudu's high end, some have gone, some have stayed.

All in all Vudu is still the best in several, but NO LONGER "MANY" ways.

[jeremymc7]

Let's also not forget that AMC just launched their home moving streaming service. Which "as I understand it" while it allows renting or purchasing is a "closed" system with no ties to MA or anything.

I REALLY don't see them existing long and when they go down anyone that bought is and bought movies is going to be ****ed.