stingermck

Also keep in mind that just a week ago Walmart decided to put even more emphasis on Vudu .It isn't going anywhere.

DJariya

Yeah people who are digital only and dumped their physical media collections were probably freaking out at this news.

Not that it would ever happen, but if any of these digital services like Vudu went under, there would be some really fucking angry people who put in hundreds if not thousands of dollars into this.

I know that probably 90% of the people here who are supporters of digital movies, especially in this forum, are in it for convenience and because they simply don't have the space to store movies in their house anymore.

OldBoy

i do still have all my physical media, but just find digital so much more convenient. music, movies and games...so easy.

Jay G.

Well, Google Play's sharing feature is pretty nice, if maybe not to the same level as UV.

What I think caused the shift to MA was that the studios saw how Disney had strong armed major retailer like iTunes, Amazon, and Google to participate in it's program, and they wanted a piece of the action.

I'm mostly fine with this except that MA doesn't handle TV shows. This isn't so much concern for what I already own, but since I get most of my digital stuff from codes that come from Blu-rays, there won't be a way for studios to include codes for TV shows anymore. And what about existing releases? Will Batman: The Animated Adventures lose the digital code because there's no place to redeem it? Will it only be redeemable on a former UV site, like Vudu?

Alan Smithee

"Any and all", I'll remember they said that.

Orbi-Wan Techno

Shannon Nutt

It's owned by Walmart, so I can't imagine it's going anywhere anytime soon. Worst comes to worst, one of the big studios would buy it - I can't see it shutting down.

b2net

I never expected Target or Best Buy to shut their streaming sites down nor Walmart shutting down their Streaming/MP3 store... Yet those did close. So it concerns me.

Jay G.

I doubt a studio would buy it, that seems like too much conflict of interest and such. If Sony owned it, how could WB trust that it's getting treated as well as Sony on the site? This is why UV and MA exist in the first place, to have a system where no single studio is in charge, and separate out the movie rights from retailers.

I think Vudu as a service is, currently, more attractive a buy than, say Walmart's DRM music store ever was. Vudu is pretty big. FandangoNOW would probably desperately want Vudu's customer base, for example. Still, the "safety net", so to speak, of UV is going away.

PhantomStranger

VUDU only has 15% of the digital sell-through market - it's a small player in a field dominated by Apple's iTunes and Amazon's Instant Video. It's a complete rounding error to Walmart's bottom line, which is why there is significant corporate risk it disappears down the road. VUDU is now the provider of last resort for all UV collections. Streaming video is not one of Walmart's core competencies as the world's largest retailer.

Walmart is going to get out of physical media, sooner or later. They keep shrinking their media area and have been slowly drawing down any content (books, magazines, videogames, movies, music) threatened by digital distribution. Once they get out of physical media, VUDU looks more and more like an unnecessary division.

I'd be very surprised if VUDU is around in seven years.

OldBoy

E Unit

There will probably be a few services by then anyways. More than likely they'll allow UV and MA movie lockers to port into. I could care less if Vudu goes belly up. As long as there is another service that has a good interface, then I'm good with that.

Abob Teff

TGM

if it all went belly's up the lawsuit would be huge.

physical media is for niche supporters and grandparents looking for Christmas gifts for their grandkids. the world is going digital for everything, I don't see how Vudu, or some other services will ever go away.

E Unit

How legit would a lawsuit be, considering digital copies belong to the studios?

Dan

Yeah, I imagine that the user license agreements are pretty solid in that you (we) have no rights if the services shut down.
Everything's temporary. Nothing's permanent.

E Unit

Except physical media!



Until it rots.

mndtrp

I got the email, but can't recall ever using the service. After getting a recovery email, come to find out I have 5 movies available. 4 I've never seen, and Last Action Hero. I have no idea how they got there. I guess I won't really be missing the service.

Shannon Nutt

That makes no sense...if Walmart drops physical media it will be to boost digital media. Yes, a lot of people cash in their codes with Vudu, but it's primarily a place to buy and rent digital media.

RichC2

Yeah that's exactly backwards. Once Physical media is gone, Digital Media would thrive.

But this is Walmart, they still have a huge CD selection.

funkyryno

Even just 15% of the market is a decent chunk when you consider how much room digital distribution still has to grow. If it can stay in the top 10 ranking of streaming providers, Vudu will be guaranteed a future. Walmart is fighting hard to remain a market leader as Amazon sucks up revenue from traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. I don't see it throwing in the towel anytime soon.

PhantomStranger

The first thing you learn in business school, leave a maturing market space if you are stuck in third place. There are substantial risks Walmart decides to axe VUDU down the line. Once everything goes all digital, VUDU doesn't feed into Walmart's primary retail business. Walmart dropped their digital music service cold when that became an also-ran in the business.

The best-case scenario in the long run is that Walmart finds a buyer for VUDU.

E Unit

Mgm!

Josh-da-man

Jay G.

From what I can find, Walmart's digital music market share was basically a rounding error. iTunes had 69%, Amazon 6%, Walmart far less.

Amazon never bailed on music, so if Walmart has 15% of the digital video market (rent/buy), that seems like enough to keep them in it. So I'm not worried it's going to be shuttered any time soon.

That said, if Vudu starts to do poorly, Walmart could shutter it. Which was supposed to be the point of UV; you weren't dependent on one retailer.

Paramount will have to move to MA is they want to keep putting digital codes in physical media, unless they want to go back to iTunes only or something.