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Wal-Mart starts selling downloadable movies
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Can you imagine yourself buying movies for your computer? Wal-Mart can. The retail giant unleashed its movie download service just days ago.
Wal-Mart customers can now choose from more than 3,000 films and television shows available for purchase from walmart.com.
It starts with a click on “Video Downloads” from the entertainment section of Wal-Mart’s Website, which provides a view of the selection of available movies. The main page advertises newly released movies, such as “The Departed,” “Marie Antoinette”, and “Zoom.” Most of the new releases are retailing for $14.88. The older movies start at $7.50.
Customers are also able to download current and older television show episodes from the site.
Episodes from shows such as “24,” “Friends,” and “Spongebob Squarepants” sell for $1.96 per episode.
Shoppers are able to navigate through the site by clicking on the desired movie genre, movie studio or type via a search engine. Shoppers may also view the theatrical trailer or an episode clip from many selections.
Today, Wal-Mart accounts for 40 percent of all DVD sales. This new service is part of the company’s strategy to generate more revenue through its online store. It has reached agreements with all six major movie studios – Warner Brothers, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Paramount, and Walt Disney. Adams Media Research estimates that movie downloading will bring in $4 billion by 2012.
This hasn’t been Wal-Mart’s only move to distribute movies. Wal-Mart experimented with renting DVDs by mail.
However, Wal-Mart threw in the towel after failing to gain much market share from Netflix.
Wal-Mart hopes its downloadable service will be more successful, but today the service is nowhere near ideal. The beta (testing) version of the service still has many kinks to work out.
It also has some severely limiting features.
Although customers are able to buy movies for select media players, iPods aren’t compatible.
Customers can only play the films on their televisions if they can figure out how to connect them to their computers.
Few people would be happy about viewing movies on a computer screen, and so many will stick with the DVD versions of movies at a marginally higher price.
Wal-Mart must improve its service quickly if it wants to be successful. The company is entering a market with existing competitors. Apple and Cinemanow are already allowing consumers buy and download movies through the Internet.
In addition, there are several companies that allow movies to be “rented” online.
Netflix and Cinemanow are the most prominent companies in this area as well.
Netflix customers are able to watch a limited number of movies as they are “streamed” through the internet in real time.
With the rising competition, downloadable movies are being set up as viable option for the future.
Though technology today leaves a lot to be desired, Wal-Mart’s new online movie purchase system is aiding in expanding this practice.
NATHAN THOMAS
BizTech Writer
