Walmart is planning to send their VUDU streaming video service international with Mexico being the first country outside the United States to receive the service. Mexico can look forward to the service as early as June with over 30 countries in Latin America to follow. Expansion into Europe and Asia is planned for the latter half of 2012.
Edward Lichty, general manager of VUDU streaming video service comments on the platform:
“At Walmart, one of our key priorities is to provide one continuous experience for our customers to interact with our brand — whether that is in stores, online or from their mobile devices,”
The expansion will give current providers like Netflix a real run for their money, literally. Netflix expanded into Canada and Latin America several years ago and have been working on offering the service in select European markets since last year.
According to Variety, VUDU will allow consumers to cover the costs of service via prepaid cards unlike Netflix who currently only works with credit cards. A Walmart representative made a statement to Variety regarding the expansion.
The anonymous rep explained:
“We’re always looking at ways to expand our offerings but we have nothing new to share at this time,”
Walmart also offer a new service for customers who wish to upgrade their outdated DVD copies of films for rights to convenient online streaming versions. This may also factor into consumers decision to choose VUDU over Netflix since the service is tied to VUDU. The transaction costs as little as $2 for standard format films, but offers the ability to upgrade to high-def formats for $5.
It sounds like Walmart is building a lot of value into their streaming service. I don’t know if there will be a viable international competitor left when they get through. We’ll keep you updated on the happenings at Walmart and VUDU.
