Now playing: Movies at Walmart.com. The world’s largest retailer today started streaming many movies the same day they come out on DVD, in a second bid for a share of the business of popular movie rental and streaming website Netflix. The move comes two weeks after Netflix announced new price increases. Walmart Stores Inc. bought video-streaming service Vudu.com 18 months ago and now offers 20,000 titles that can be viewed on almost any device with Internet access, from computers to televisions to Sony’s PlayStation3 and other Blu-Ray disc players.
Movies are available at Walmart.com to rent for $1 to $5.99 or to purchase for $4.99 and up. Walmart is not offering subscriptions, making its service similar to that of Apple’s iTunes, which charges $3.99 to rent newly released movies and $14.99 to buy a movie. The addition of movie streaming fits with the Walmart website’s strategy of offering a “seamless continuous shopping service,” says Steve Nave, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart.com.
