Wal-Mart Joins Movie Download Game

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 12:30 PM - by

Wal-Mart is the latest company to enter the digital movie download arena. The big box retailer's movie service will launch on Wednesday with an exclusive Superman Returns DVD bundle that includes a movie download option when you buy the DVD.

Wal-Mart's movie download service requires a special Windows-only application to download and play movies, and you can't create DVD movie discs that work with standard DVD players. Movie downloads will be available in two formats: a 640 x 480 resolution version for Windows PCs, and 320 x 240 version for Microsoft PlaysForSure-compatible media players - which does not include Microsoft's own Zune.

Superman Returns kicks off Wal-Mart's movie download service.

CNN Money reports that Wal-Mart's movie service is in a beta testing phase right now, and the company plans to add additional movie download bundles. The service will feature movies and TV shows from several studios.

Apple's iTunes Store is currently the market leader in legal music and video downloads. But unlike Wal-Mart, Apple launched its movie download service with just Disney and its affiliate studios. Wal-Mart has not said which studios signed on for its service, but presumably Warner Bros. is on the list since the service is launching with Superman Returns.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:37 pm

Wow, another worthless download site that doesn't work for any Mac user. Typical, and this is one reason why it will fail.

4 bucks for a download is to high. Netflix is a better deal.

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nealg said:

member since 22 Mar 2006 with 120 posts, unranked , send him a message or view his profile

Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:37 pm

The big question is will there be a market for this type of service? Did Walmart do a market survey and come up with a service that its customers want or is it just that this is a service that they can do so they are giving it a try and hoping that it finds a market? It will be interesting to see how this service does.

Neal

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:05 am

Um, the price would hardly be $4.00... unless you wanted to download both type of video files. For us iPod users it would be under $2 which is cheaper than a music video on the iTunes store. Hard to complain about that price. Especially when the only alternative at present for movies on your iPod is to pay those outrageous prices that iTMS charges. The only downside to this plan is that you have to buy the DVD first and I don't think too many consumers like to buy their movies twice, even if it is only $2 more. I think most people are like me and think that by buying the movie you should be allowed to watch it however you want on whatever you want. That said $2 to get it on your ipod really isn't that bad of a deal. It's just to bad that I won't shop at Walmart. Here's the a quote from the press release.

"With the purchase of the "Superman Returns" physical DVD, Wal-Mart said customers can also choose from three video download format options -- $1.97 for portable devices, $2.97 for PCs/laptops, and $3.97 for both portable players and PC/laptops."

I'd rather see a rental/download service for movies that doesn't require buying the DVD. For example maybe $3 to rent a movie to your iPod that you have a week to watch or something like that. Ah well, it's a step in the right direction and hopefully it will encourage some better competition in the market. iTMS might be one of the better music download sites out there but they have quite some ways to go in terms of video downloads. I'll stick with my 360 and other movie rental sites.

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