After their initial tests were a success, Walmart has decided it’s finally time to throw their hat in the ring of the battle royale that is the digital movie download business. Later today, Walmart will officially launch a new site at walmart.com/videodownloads that will allow customers to download both film and television content directly to their home computers.
Although the market is already packed with competition from the likes of Amazon.com, iTunes, NetFlix, and CinemaNow, Walmart has the advantage of already having made a deal with the Big 6 movie studios (Universal, Sony, Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Disney) and several television studios ( including Fox, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, CW, FX , and VH1). Prices for all film downloads will be in the range of $12.88-$19.88 US when a DVD is first released and older films will be set at $7.50. Television shows will be $1.96 per episode. With ranges like that, It’s easy to see why many of these companies were willing to work with Walmart and not Apple.
While Walmart is definitely a company NO ONE should take lightly, as they have the money and resources to make this a successful venture, they have a lot of work to do in convincing customers that their option is superior to others. To be considered a success, Walmart will not only have to co-exist with its competition, but will have to make some serious in-roads into the overall market share, which is currently dominated by iTunes in both movies and television. What Walmart really wants is to bring in more customers to its 4,000 stores around the world, and only time will tell if this venture will help them accomplish that goal.
One thing’s for sure, the Digital Movie download space just got a lot more interesting…
