Wal-mart gets Vudu, online HD provider
Wal-Mart confirmed that it’s buying Vudu, the online video pay-per-view service.
The move puts the retail giant on the cutting edge of the streaming video space, where it’ll compete with Amazon’s Video on Demand and the iTunes Store.
Wal-Mart also could choose to challenge Netflix, with its “free” Watch Instantly service, which comes with the standard snail-mail DVD rental packages.
Vudu streams its high definition content in 1080p, using the kind of state of the art equipment that few would associate with the Arkansas-based big boxer. Vudu’s customers can buy or rent the video titles.
The New York Times, which does a good job of tracking online video news, broke the Vudu story. Wal-mart pushed out a news release on the Vudu buy shortly thereafter.
Vudu’s on-demand service is built in high-definition TV sets and Blu-ray players from home electronics hardware makers such as Toshiba, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Vizio and Mitsubishi.
BetaNews points out that Vudu is the only major streaming service to serve up adult content, via its deal with the AVN network. Wal-Mart, known for pulling CDs with dubious cover art, no doubt will take a hard look at that.
Update: Wal-Mart wasted no time in cleaning up the streets of Vudu. “After Dark” subscribers told told almost immediately that the adult movie services was being axed. The naughty vids were supposed to stop flowing within days, according to the email sent to the premium pervs.
The Vudu buyout, which had been anticipated, is expected to close in a few weeks, Wal-mart said. The price could be as high as $100 million, industry wags say — a ton of money for a small player in the relatively small online video industry. The asking price reportedly was $50 million.
Meanwhile, the Times reported that the iTunes Store is experimenting with renting network TV shows for 99 cents instead of the current $1.99 (for standard def).
And MediaMemo followed up on the move to monetize Hulu (at viewers’ expense) with speculation that its online video offerings could be available on the iPad only via subscription.
Vudu taps into Criterion movie streams
Vudu has started offering streaming movies from the Criterion Collection, the video label of choice for foreign, classic, arthouse and experimental fare.
Criterion’s online video service started up about a year ago, serving up titles such as “La Strada,” “Grey Gardens,” “Au Revoir Les Enfants,” “Monterey Pop” and “M.” Vudu subscribers can access the films via their box or Vudu-ready TVs and Blu-ray players.
Pretty much everything released by the Criterion Collection
On Criterion’s “Online Cinematheque” site, the movies go for $5, but they appear to be $3 on Vudu. The advantage via Vudu is the movies stream directly to your television.
“The Criterion Collection has a long history of delivering the most significant movies of our times from the highest quality video and audio source files available,” press-released Alain Rossmann, CEO of Vudu.
Criterion co-founder Jonathan Turell said the label was “impressed with Vudu’s quality.” Indeed, there is an above-average selection of foreign films on the service, for example.
Of course the highest-quality source for these films remains Criterion’s newish line of Blu-ray discs and its current-version DVDs. But the more Criterion the better, so Vudu subs are plugged into a good thing.
Vudu shrinks basic box to $149
Broadband movie service Vudu has halved the price of its basic set-top box, with the trusty BX100 now retailing for $149.
Vudu, a pioneer in high-definition online video, also cut the price of its “Vudu XL” premium box to $499, from $999.
The BX100 still doesn’t come with wireless, so you’ll get a bit of a break on that kit, too: $20 off to the price point of $79.
Apple TV goes for $229, making the Vudu a strong option for those seeking another black block in the living room. Apple’s box has 160 gigs of storage, while the basic Vudu holds 250GB. Vudu says it has more than 13,000 titles, a convenient 1,300 of them in high-def.
Vudu cited a strong holiday season for the ability to make the big MSRP price cuts. The online video service ran a special in December that offered the player for $99 if you sprang for $50 in movie credits. This time, no credits but still the attractive $149 price.
“We are reaping the rewards of success in the retail channel over the holidays, lower component prices and higher movie revenues. The combination of these factors has enabled us to lower the price of VUDU and bring it within reach of more consumers,” said Vudu exec vp Edward Lichty.
Of course, once you own the box, it’s time to buy movies and TV shows. Your basic just-out-of-theaters movie title rents for $4 and sells for $20. Vudu has no monthly fee.
The Vudu box went for $400 a year ago, before a price cut to $295 in response to an Apple TV move.
Bad mojo at Vudu: 20% of staff axed
The suits at Vudu are saying the things investors and subscribers would like to hear, but it’s hard to find much good in the news that the movies-on-demand outfit laid off something like 20% of its staff.
The company’s line is that the layoffs were “just a normal process” for a start-up, which has to adjust to market conditions in the early lifecycle.
National dealer channel manager Mark Donnigan has made the rounds of the tech sites, denying any internal crisis and pointing out that Vudu is aggressively rounding up high-definition films to feed its premium set-top box.
Only four months ago, the New York Times hailed the online movie service under the headline “Vudu Casts Its Spell in Hollywood.” Perhaps, the author wrote, the black box meant a “goodbye to laborious computer downloads, sticky-floored movie theaters and cable companies’ much narrower video-on-demand offerings.”
Chris Watts, formerly of eBay, has just come aboard as CFO, with his predecessor leaving for “personal reasons.” The layoffs were reported as 16 or 18 staffers out of 100. At the same time, the Vudu jobs page cites various positions “coming soon” and eight current jobs in marketing and sales.
Vudu slid into the porno business earlier this month, partnering with AVN for VOD sales of SD and HD movies from Vivid, Hustler and Wicked, the big-name creators of adult content. Some tech bloggers cited that move as one of desperation, but it seems more like giving the heavily male early adopters what they want.
The layoffs come a few weeks after movie-download service Vongo bit the dust.
Vudu breaks 24-hour rental barrier
The hated 24-hour limit on online movie rentals has seen its first breech, more or less.
Download service Vudu, in its latest set-top box software upgrade (1.5), slipped into a model in which rentals can be extended beyond the 24-hour frame — for a price, of course. Certain, um, restrictions apply.
Call it a digital late fee.
So if you’re trying to muddle through the metaphysics of “Revolver” and time has run out, you’ll pay a buck less than the original price for the renewal (this can only be done once). That’s $2.99 for a standard extension. (You get $2 off on the high definition.) The renewal has to selected within a week of the first expiration. Then you have 30 days to re-engage with the video. Once you’ve hit play (again), the movie can be viewed for up to 24 or 48 hours, depending on the film.
Of course Vudu consumers pay something like $300 for the box. To start with.
Vudu, to its credit, probably achieved some kind of breakthrough with the studios in getting them to agree to this. The 24-hour cap is a prime source of grumbling among you early adopters — like a return to the bad old days of Blockbuster late fees.
Still, it’s hard to get too excited when you’re paying twice for the same movie to be watched once. And that combined price is almost as much as buying the film from, say, Apple’s iTunes Store download service.
The studio-mandated 24-hour rule is another of those head-shaking eyeball-rolling policies from the old-media elite in Hollywood. My geezer ears are hearing Peter, Paul & Mary: “When will they ever learn, when will they eh-ver learn?”
