Walmart Announces New Movie Download Service

Welcome to the game, Walmart. It seems inevitable and defensible to me that Walmart, after contributing yet another bilious drop in the mass-corporate slopbucket, would react in a backlashing manner to the many online video downloading services eating away at their DVD sales bottom line, cry about it, and start such a service of their own. It was announced today that they are moving into the movie and television download business, and I think it is a wise and long overdue moment for them. Ultimately, I think it will be healthy for the market, as customers will get acclimated to buying and viewing their content online.

A nice bonus for Walmart is the fact that they got every major studio to sign onto the deal. Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony, Universal, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox are all on board. Caveat Emptor, however: Walmart is not the first to get all these big fish in the same boat; CinemaNow and Movielink have similiar deals and should be shaking in their boots now that Walmart will begin to feed its insatiable appetite. It is also notable that Walmart is the first big brand name to do so behind Apple's iTunes. Now all they have to do is make sure their browser's technical hiccups get fixed. Seems like a pre-alpha release to me.