Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
02-22-10, 04:51 PM
#1
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Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
Walmart Announces Acquisition of Digital Entertainment Provider, VUDU
Company takes next step to enhance home entertainment and information delivery options for consumers
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Feb. 22, 2010 -- Walmart announced today a definitive agreement to acquire VUDU, Inc., a leading provider of digital technologies and services that enable the delivery of entertainment content directly to broadband high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players. The deal is expected to close within the next few weeks.
VUDU is a revolutionary service, built into a growing number of broadband-ready TVs and Blu-ray players, that delivers instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows directly through the television. Customers with broadband Internet access and an Internet-ready TV or Blu-ray player can rent or purchase movies, typically in high-definition, without needing a connected computer or cable/satellite service. New movies and features will be added continually, enabling customers to enjoy a product that continues to become more robust long after they have left the store.
"The real winner here is the customer," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman for Walmart. "Combining VUDU's unique digital technology and service with Walmart's retail expertise and scale will provide customers with unprecedented access to home entertainment options as they migrate to a digital environment."
VUDU has licensing agreements with almost every major movie studio and dozens of independent and international distributors to offer approximately 16,000 movies, including the largest 1080p library of video on-demand movies available anywhere. Via their broadband Internet connection, users have the ability to rent or buy titles and begin viewing them instantly.
VUDU will continue developing entertainment and information delivery solutions such as VUDU Apps, a platform that delivers hundreds of streaming Internet applications and services to TVs and Blu-ray players with built-in Internet connectivity. VUDU has partnered with some of the leading names in Internet and media entertainment to offer applications on its platform including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, The New York Times and The Associated Press.
"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, based in Santa Clara, Calif., will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart. The company is not disclosing financial terms of the agreement as the acquisition is not material to its first quarter earnings for fiscal year 2011
Company takes next step to enhance home entertainment and information delivery options for consumers
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Feb. 22, 2010 -- Walmart announced today a definitive agreement to acquire VUDU, Inc., a leading provider of digital technologies and services that enable the delivery of entertainment content directly to broadband high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players. The deal is expected to close within the next few weeks.
VUDU is a revolutionary service, built into a growing number of broadband-ready TVs and Blu-ray players, that delivers instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows directly through the television. Customers with broadband Internet access and an Internet-ready TV or Blu-ray player can rent or purchase movies, typically in high-definition, without needing a connected computer or cable/satellite service. New movies and features will be added continually, enabling customers to enjoy a product that continues to become more robust long after they have left the store.
"The real winner here is the customer," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman for Walmart. "Combining VUDU's unique digital technology and service with Walmart's retail expertise and scale will provide customers with unprecedented access to home entertainment options as they migrate to a digital environment."
VUDU has licensing agreements with almost every major movie studio and dozens of independent and international distributors to offer approximately 16,000 movies, including the largest 1080p library of video on-demand movies available anywhere. Via their broadband Internet connection, users have the ability to rent or buy titles and begin viewing them instantly.
VUDU will continue developing entertainment and information delivery solutions such as VUDU Apps, a platform that delivers hundreds of streaming Internet applications and services to TVs and Blu-ray players with built-in Internet connectivity. VUDU has partnered with some of the leading names in Internet and media entertainment to offer applications on its platform including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, The New York Times and The Associated Press.
"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, based in Santa Clara, Calif., will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart. The company is not disclosing financial terms of the agreement as the acquisition is not material to its first quarter earnings for fiscal year 2011
02-22-10, 06:06 PM
#2
DVD Talk Reviewer & TOAT Winner
Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
Well, fuck indeed- I guess that means all the porn they have on Vudu now will be taken off since Wal-Mart is a "family" company.
My new Vizio TV has Vudu built-in and it's pretty cool, but I haven't watched any real movies on it since the advertised 5.1 sound doesn't work- I just get a 2-channel PCM signal and neither Vudu nor Vizio want to offer any suggestions, so I've only watched older movies with mono soundtracks on it. Right now you can watch the AVN Awards show for free, but it's at a very low bitrate.
My new Vizio TV has Vudu built-in and it's pretty cool, but I haven't watched any real movies on it since the advertised 5.1 sound doesn't work- I just get a 2-channel PCM signal and neither Vudu nor Vizio want to offer any suggestions, so I've only watched older movies with mono soundtracks on it. Right now you can watch the AVN Awards show for free, but it's at a very low bitrate.
02-22-10, 06:40 PM
#3
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Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
You liking your new Vizio? Been watching that as a potential purchase, just not spending $1,400 right now on it.
02-23-10, 04:12 AM
#4
DVD Talk Reviewer & TOAT Winner
Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
It's pretty cool, only mine's a $2000 model. I got it mainly because I applied online for their VIP program, and surprisingly they picked me even though I said I watch about 0 hours of broadcast TV per week and don't have cable or satellite. Maybe they liked the amount of time I said I DID spend on the internet per week. So me and a few other people got these a couple months before they're supposed to show up in stores, and every week we get to do a short online survey on one of the TV's features- so far they haven't been as specific as I would like, and I don't know how much weight the feedback is going to have on their actually making improvements.
It's a pretty good TV overall, I didn't think I'd be able to afford an LED model but this one fit the bill. My main gripe is the not-so-smart "smart dimming"- while it does dramatically improve the black levels, they sometimes don't know when to come back on when the screen displays pure black, like between movie trailers or anything where there's quick flashing followed by black frames. They go completely off for the black frames, then when the picture comes back they take a half-second to come back on. I'm sort of willing to live with it since it's still a new technology, but I hope they come out with a fix for it. My other gripe is the onscreen display comes on whenever a device re-flags its signal, mainly with the Blu-Ray player when playing a disc with material in different resolutions. If the main movie is in 1080p then goes to an extra on the disc with a lower resolution, the signal will go out then come back with "HDMI" displayed for a few seconds. I have an upconverting receiver but nothing can stop the signal from cutting out the way it does- since I'm obsessive and can't have anything on the screen when I'm watching something, I have to use the remote to make the display go away early then skip back to the beginning of whatever was playing so I can watch it clean. I wish there were something that could just insert some black video while it's doing that to stop that from happening.
I can get VOD movies from Vudu and Amazon, I've tried a few from each- the quality on Vudu is much better than Amazon, they both claim to have 5.1 sound but I can't get anything other than 2-channel PCM from either of them, and I've checked the TV's audio settings to make sure I had them set right. If they can fix that I'll probably use them for watching, but I'd never 'buy' a movie through either of these since they cost about the same as a disc and I don't get my own copy that way, you just have the 'right' to stream it whenever you want, and there's nothing to stop them from taking anything offline, which could happen with Vudu's adult titles if Wal-Mart takes over. I don't like the idea of this type of thing replacing disc-based media, there's a few older movies on both services that haven't been on DVD at all or only issued in 4x3 format while the VOD transfers are 16x9, so I'm mad they haven't made these new transfers also available on disc. What particularly hurts is "Little Darlings" which I recently got on laserdisc through Ebay since it's never had a DVD release, now I find both Amazon and Vudu have a widescreen transfer of it that I can 'buy' from them, but I can't get it on DVD or Blu-Ray.
If Wal-Mart takes over Vudu and removes 'offensive' content, and Amazon's quality gets better, I may just not even bother browsing movies on Vudu just as a matter of principle. Of course they might not hang on to it forever anyways, they once started their own rent-by-mail service to compete with Netflix, then ended up selling it to Netflix.
It's a pretty good TV overall, I didn't think I'd be able to afford an LED model but this one fit the bill. My main gripe is the not-so-smart "smart dimming"- while it does dramatically improve the black levels, they sometimes don't know when to come back on when the screen displays pure black, like between movie trailers or anything where there's quick flashing followed by black frames. They go completely off for the black frames, then when the picture comes back they take a half-second to come back on. I'm sort of willing to live with it since it's still a new technology, but I hope they come out with a fix for it. My other gripe is the onscreen display comes on whenever a device re-flags its signal, mainly with the Blu-Ray player when playing a disc with material in different resolutions. If the main movie is in 1080p then goes to an extra on the disc with a lower resolution, the signal will go out then come back with "HDMI" displayed for a few seconds. I have an upconverting receiver but nothing can stop the signal from cutting out the way it does- since I'm obsessive and can't have anything on the screen when I'm watching something, I have to use the remote to make the display go away early then skip back to the beginning of whatever was playing so I can watch it clean. I wish there were something that could just insert some black video while it's doing that to stop that from happening.
I can get VOD movies from Vudu and Amazon, I've tried a few from each- the quality on Vudu is much better than Amazon, they both claim to have 5.1 sound but I can't get anything other than 2-channel PCM from either of them, and I've checked the TV's audio settings to make sure I had them set right. If they can fix that I'll probably use them for watching, but I'd never 'buy' a movie through either of these since they cost about the same as a disc and I don't get my own copy that way, you just have the 'right' to stream it whenever you want, and there's nothing to stop them from taking anything offline, which could happen with Vudu's adult titles if Wal-Mart takes over. I don't like the idea of this type of thing replacing disc-based media, there's a few older movies on both services that haven't been on DVD at all or only issued in 4x3 format while the VOD transfers are 16x9, so I'm mad they haven't made these new transfers also available on disc. What particularly hurts is "Little Darlings" which I recently got on laserdisc through Ebay since it's never had a DVD release, now I find both Amazon and Vudu have a widescreen transfer of it that I can 'buy' from them, but I can't get it on DVD or Blu-Ray.
If Wal-Mart takes over Vudu and removes 'offensive' content, and Amazon's quality gets better, I may just not even bother browsing movies on Vudu just as a matter of principle. Of course they might not hang on to it forever anyways, they once started their own rent-by-mail service to compete with Netflix, then ended up selling it to Netflix.
02-23-10, 03:20 PM
#5
Banned
Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
The problem for me with Amazon's/Apple's content (especially the HD TV Show episodes) is that they are too expensive. They need to cut the price by at least $1 per episode.
02-23-10, 04:07 PM
#7
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Thread Starter
Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
Thanks for the impressions. I've been looking at the 47" model (about $1,400), but not sure I am going to upgrade right now.
02-23-10, 09:17 PM
#8
DVD Talk Reviewer & TOAT Winner
Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
Yes, the VOD prices are rather high- most movies are $4 for 24 hours, adult titles are about $7, but as long as they're still up I'm going to watch a few just to spite Wal-Mart before they get pulled. Vudu does have a 99-cent rental special each day with a different movie selected- so far it's always been ones I already have on one format or another. 5.1 problem still hasn't been fixed so I wouldn't watch a real movie even for that price.
02-23-10, 09:39 PM
#9
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Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
Yes, the VOD prices are rather high- most movies are $4 for 24 hours, adult titles are about $7, but as long as they're still up I'm going to watch a few just to spite Wal-Mart before they get pulled. Vudu does have a 99-cent rental special each day with a different movie selected- so far it's always been ones I already have on one format or another. 5.1 problem still hasn't been fixed so I wouldn't watch a real movie even for that price.
02-23-10, 11:56 PM
#10
DVD Talk Reviewer & TOAT Winner
Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
Does the BD player output the sound in 5.1? The screens on my TV say it can, but all I've been able to get are 2-channel PCM- the TV tuner outputs 5.1 so I know I've got that set right. I hope they fix it, but again if Wal-Mart is going to buy the service and limit what I can see I'd rather not give them my money. There's another service called FyreTV that does just porn and requires another box, they should try to get an app on Vizio TVs.
02-24-10, 12:06 PM
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Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
Does the BD player output the sound in 5.1? The screens on my TV say it can, but all I've been able to get are 2-channel PCM- the TV tuner outputs 5.1 so I know I've got that set right. I hope they fix it, but again if Wal-Mart is going to buy the service and limit what I can see I'd rather not give them my money. There's another service called FyreTV that does just porn and requires another box, they should try to get an app on Vizio TVs.
02-24-10, 12:56 PM
#12
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Re: Wal-Mart buys VuDu for $100 Million
Does the BD player output the sound in 5.1? The screens on my TV say it can, but all I've been able to get are 2-channel PCM- the TV tuner outputs 5.1 so I know I've got that set right. I hope they fix it, but again if Wal-Mart is going to buy the service and limit what I can see I'd rather not give them my money. There's another service called FyreTV that does just porn and requires another box, they should try to get an app on Vizio TVs.
