AfterDawn: News

Wal-Mart cancels online video download service

Wal-Mart has quietly canceled its online video download service, less than a year after the retailer began the service.

The download site was shut down last week after HP discontinued the technology that powered the site and service. A Wal-Mart spokesperson said the retailer will not be looking for another partner.



A spokesperson for HP said the company discontinued the technology "because the market for paid video downloads did not perform as expected."

Visitors to www.walmart.com/videodownloads were greeted by a meesage stating that service was stopped on December 21 and that the retailer will be giving no refunds for the downloaded videos.

Wal-Mart's online store must have failed miserably. Currently, download sales equal about 1 percent of the $24.5 billion in DVD and home video sales and rentals in 2006 but the number is expected to grow substantially over the next decade. Perhaps then, Wal-Mart will jump into the online movie download business again.

Source:
Yahoo

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Dec 2007 16:54

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• 8 comments

• ZippyDSM

  walmart needs a cheap online distro setup that can be safe for them to push media mafia offerings.

  27.12.2007 22:01 #1

• 7thsinger

  Quote:Wal-Mart's online store must have failed miserably. Currently, download sales equal about 1 percent of the $24.5 billion in DVD and home video sales and rentals in 2006 but the number is expected to grow substantially over the next decade. Perhaps then, Wal-Mart will jump into the online movie download business again.
  Yeah, maybe after they've full recouped from the losses this time around.

  28.12.2007 08:43 #2

• emugamer

  Walmarts are everywhere. Why would they want to try an online download service when they always have huge bins of $5.00 DVD's and they're more mainstream DVD's are also extremely cheap.

  28.12.2007 11:55 #3

• 7thsinger

  Because they - like everyone else - want to seek more avenues to make more money. They tried this, it didn't work so well this time.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  28.12.2007 12:45 #4

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by 7thsinger: Because they - like everyone else - want to seek more avenues to make more money. They tried this, it didn't work so well this time.
  Crappy service is what killed it plus the service die3d so they could not continue it.

  28.12.2007 16:42 #5

• borhan9

  Is there going to be a lawsuit in regards to all this or what.

  29.12.2007 18:27 #6

• wazzat

  Walmart had a video download service? I must not have belonged to Afterdawn last Feb.

  5.1.2008 20:10 #7

• 7thsinger

  Originally posted by wazzat: Walmart had a video download service? I must not have belonged to Afterdawn last Feb.Exactly why they died out. I believe zippy in saying the service was lacking, but also there was not much press about it.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  My life never began with "once upon a time" so why would i expect it to end with "happily ever after"?

  5.1.2008 20:23 #8