Wal-Mart Offers Up Downloadable Movies

An anonymous reader slipped us the link to a C|Net article on another downloadable movie offering, this time from retail giant Wal-mart. Stinging from their loss to Netflix in the online DVD rental business two years ago, they are coming out swinging with this service. They've made arrangements with all six major Hollywood studios, and (the article theorizes) will likely have highly competitive prices. With Apple's dominance of this particular market, there is still no guarantee whether Wal-mart will have any success with this program. The biggest problem, commentators note, is that there is no guarantee Wal-mart's service will draw customers into their stores: the issue that ultimately caused them to scuttle the DVD rental service. What do you think of a major retailer getting into movie download business? Will the company be able to outmaneuver Apple and Netflix the same way it has done with other retailers in the past?

corrected link

[swissfondue]

The article can be found here [com.com]

Walmart will also be selling TV series. They have more studios signed up than Apple, mainly due, I think, to Walmart's caving in to the Studios demands (same pricing as DVDs).

Re:Not if it's like their stores.

[Lumpy]

"The online movie download business isn't about dirt cheap, it's about customer service."
you haven't used Netflix then.

Throttling my movies because we watch them that night and return them the next morning. they make damned sure you can not get any more than 2 deliveries in a week, and when you get throttled you get 1 a week.

Try calling them ... Poor/nonexistent customer service
Most DVD's are damaged pretty badly because if the crappy mailing system. I recieve on average 2-3 cracked DVD's a month.

I still use them because they are better than Blockbuster, but nobody in their right mind thinks any of the online movie rental businesses are about customer service.

Re:Not if it's like their stores.

[bouis]

People like Wal-Mart, not only because of the convenience and the fair and consistent prices, but because they have no-hassle return policy. It might not seem like much to you, today, but try taking something back to a store 20 or 30 years ago-- much less after you've opened it.

Re:Link

[grimwell]

And for an added bonus the link to Wal-Mart's video store within the story is broken.

Article link [com.com]

Wal-Mart Video Store [walmart.com] note: the site renders horribly in Mozilla & Firefox... at least for me.

throttling

[ClioCJS]

i've been on netflix, on and off, for years. never once have they throttled me. i do 4-at-once, get 4 on monday, send them back tuesday, they arrive by thursday, they send more out friday -- if i'm lucky and they come in 1 day (they sometimes to), I can in theory get 4 more saturday. anyway, i've never noticed any throttling, but I hear a lot of people claim it. Maybe your p.o. is what sucks.

Re:Security

[Anonymous Coward]

Dunno where you're looking, but I got a nice 32" LCD HDTV for a little over 600 bucks a year ago. Oh wait, I get it. You're one of those troll things, aren't you?

Re:...and

[Paulrothrock]

Where are you that you have volume limits on your broadband? I've downloaded and uploaded hundreds of gigabytes of information (legally) and nobody from my ISP has complained.

Re:Not if it's like their stores.

[ja-ja-morkmorkmork]

the junk that is offered to walmart consumers is not the same as merchandise that manufacturers sell to other retailers, even with the same branding - see snapper & rubbermaid...
caveat emptor

Re:Not if it's like their stores.

[Bob3141592]

It's not always the same stuff, even if the brand packaging is nearly identical. Read the ingredient list and you'll find differences. Wal-Mart makes it's suppliers cut corners to keep the price down or be locked out of the largest potential customer base. A few suppliers have refused to deal with Wal-Mart rather than to compromise their quality.

The presumption that the items sold in Wal-Mart are the same because they look the same is often incorrect. Check it out and see for yourself.

System Requirementrs

[JoeCommodore]

What are the minimum system requirements to download a movie or TV episode?
Switching to Konquerer I was able to browse a coherent page layout and locate these system requirements:

Wal-Mart Video Download Manager
- Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Vista (32 bit only no Macintosh or Linux).
- 256MB of RAM or higher
- 4 GB of hard disk space
- A sound card
- Speakers or headphones (if you want to play a movie or TV episode on your PC)
- An internet connection (broadband recommended)
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher
- Microsoft Windows Media® Player version 10 or higher (version 10 is preferred for syncing to portable devices)
- .NET 2.0 or higher

Article is "Who really won the superbowl"!

[Eivind Eklund]

Let me link you all to Wal-Mart partners with studios in download deal [com.com] on CNet.com, originally from The New York Times [nytimes.com].

Eivind.

Re:Security

[networkBoy]

I care. It's WalMart. I won't buy from them. Period.
-nB

Re:Wal*Mart doesn't have the right competencies

[jratcliffe]

"Wal*Mart is unlikely to make this work, because (whatever you think of them) their excellences are not in innovative use of technology."

Honestly, this is completely wrong. What made Wal*Mart the juggernaut is EXACTLY the effective use of technology. Wal*Mart invested in computerized inventory and a company-wide satellite-based data network way before anyone else. As a result, they knew EXACTLY what was selling in each store, and could manage inventory much, much better than anyone else. Brought down costs, and ensured that the products were actually on the shelves.