Retail behemoth Walmart is set to get into the online-movie-rental business by purchasing Silicon Valley startup Vudu, which streams movies to television sets, thanks to partnerships with TV manufacturers.
The pending Vudu purchase will put Walmart up against NetFlix and other online movie rental services, such as iTunes. Netflix leads in the battle to move movie rentals away from DVD disks delivered through the mail or picked up form from retail outlets. Netflix subscribers can currently stream – to their computers or Roku boxes – thousands of movies at no additional cost. Google's YouTube is also planning to roll-out pay-per-view full length movies.
Vudu movies, which include a growing selection of HD titles, streams movies to users over their broadband connection. Users without compatible televisions need to purchase a set-top box that ranges from $150 to $500. Rental movies currently cost between $1 and $6, while others can be purchased for $5 to $25.
The terms of the deal, which will close in the coming weeks, were not revealed. But both companies on Monday confirmed the purchase, which was first reported by The New York Times.
Studios have hesitated to allow recent releases to be rented from outlets like Netflix and Redbox, for fear of losing profits from DVD sales. Similar fears have kept many movies from making their way into streamable video services, encouraging a vigorous online ecosystem for pirated movies.
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