"Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

[Alan Smithee]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...022403266.html

My earlier statement about "bullying" may have been a little overblown, but Wal-Mart has gotten bad press for things like encouraging their workers to get food stamps (why not just give them free or highly discounted food?) and at least one incident of forcing people to work overtime yet making creative adjustments on the time cards so that they were not paid for the overtime. It's also common knowledge that Wal-Mart actually PREFERS a high employee turnover rate, since that means fewer people they have to provide full benefits for. I laughed out loud at their "Save Money, Live Better" slogan- yes, that's true for their customers, but their EMPLOYEES certainly don't live better! (And maybe some of them aren't smart enough to work anyplace else, but that's another topic.)

Wal-Mart has already done other incredibly stupid things in regards to the entertainment industry- most notable being their refusal to carry any music albums with "Parental Advisory" labels. This has resulted in many albums being issued in separate edited versions just to appease Wal-Mart- they certainly didn't make these for anyone else. With this same mentality they should also only carry G-rated movies, but they do carry titles up to R-rated. I know that Wal-Mart WAS responsible for the issuing of separate so-called "Full Screen Edition" DVDs when both versions would not fit on one disc, because Wal-Mart demanded the movie studios do so after their uneducated customers complained about "the black bars". (There is already plentiful information on the internet about how widescreen is the CORRECT way to display a movie, I'll leave it up to you to find it rather than repeat it here.) Now those who have bought "Full Screen" DVDs get to watch their cropped movies on their new widescreen TVs with black bars on the SIDES, or else stretch out that cropped picture making it look even worse!

Another HUGE inconsistency with Wal-Mart's holier-than-thou approach is that media with objectionable content is not OK, but they also sell guns, cigarettes, and alcohol, which cause far more damage than any piece of recorded media. (And I'm not advocating the banning of those either- I don't buy them but don't support suppressing someone else's right to do so and don't boycott stores that sell them.)

So yet again, let me say I won't be doing any more business with Vudu or Wal-Mart should this acquisition and removal of content come to pass.

[mhausig]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I'm not too surprised by this but overall disappointed because this most likely means that the Vudu brand will be absorbed into Walmart rather than being kept on as a separate entity.

One thing that had me puzzled once the adult content was enabled was why Vudu didn't make a big push for the hotel VOD niche. None of the other competitors were in a position to make a play for the hotel market as they lacked adult content and now that potential market is going to be closed to Vudu as well. Its odd that such a potentially lucractive path to mass adoption of the Vudu service would be passed up.

[gvf_in_sf]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

I've just asked to cancel my membership. I WILL NOT SUPPORT WAL-MART.

[gvf_in_sf]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I absolutely refuse to support Wal-mart and so with this acquisition, I will be cancelling my membership. If you think Wal-mart is a good company, well, your head is in the sand. They are one of the most un-American companies out there. Before you claim that lower prices on soda is so incredibly great, think about all of the small businesses Wal-mart has crushed, how much they buy from China, how they treat their employees, and how they force American companies to lower workers' wages. Oh, yeah, that's all so great. You're really quite short-sighted and foolish if you think so.

[Schwack]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

Dude, the 3 advantages of this buy-out is 1) Vudu's life line, 2)potential more movie availability (especially on release day) and 3) cheaper HDX prices.

That's what comes to my mind..........

[jstrait]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

Does anybody, I mean ANYBODY, think that this is a good thing? Walmart has a horrible reputation. Walmart believes in censorship. Walmart thinks there are only two ways to do anything, the Walmart way and the wrong way.

BOO HISS! BAD MOVE VUDU!!!!

Jeff

[mebby]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

There, fixed that for you.

LOL! Correct you are. I would be shocked to see anyone from Vudu commenting any further on this.

[aaronwt]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

If it's like my experiences at the several local Walmart stores I've been to, the VUDU service should improve even further with the prices getting lower.

The five or six local Walmarts that I've been to have typically been excellent service, very clean, and had excellent prices.
Although in the DC area, many of the Walmart parking lots are littered with cars costing over $50K.

But in my travels around the country I also had good experiences with the local Walmarts too.

The experiences were always bad when there wasn't a Walmart in the town since I always had to pay inflated prices at the mom and pop stores. I really hated paying a 30% premium because there was no competition. I couldn't have imgained living in an area like that. One to two weeks at a time was enough.

[MaxH]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I noticed there hasn't been any moderators commenting on the acquisition. The lawyers must have caught their tongues.

There, fixed that for you.

[Alan Smithee]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

They've already said that they'll be getting rid of the After Dark (porn) section- they'll probably replace it with an all Pat Robertson section. I hope they also make 'full screen' versions of all the movies that are on now, because I don't like dem black barz on mah tee-vee.

[rstone]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

It will outsourced to China, like everything else.

[pezz1259]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

Their are several i'm sure. I am sorry you felt the need to go out of your way and spend more money on gas and on the soda you would of gotten at Walmart. We do save people money so they can live better.

[pezz1259]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

They've already said the adult titles will be removed. This is reason for me to not only stop watching movies on Vudu, but also to stop shopping at Wal-Mart's stores. It's one thing for them to not want to carry porn in their stores if they deem it unsuitable, it's another to take it away from a service that already had it. REDUCING the amount of material available is never a good thing. For those who find this stuff offensive, there were already plenty of ways to get rid of it- the listings didn't even show up unless you specifically requested them to.

Wal-Mart's ultimate goal is to own EVERYTHING, and if that happens then their will will be imposed on EVERYTHING as well.

Walmart said that all adult titles will be removed? Humm where did you read that? please post the link and or artical. I would really like to read it.

[pezz1259]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I've read that the acquisition is now official, and also fear for the future of the After Dark selection. I try to do as little business as possible with Wal-Mart anyways because of how they treat their employees and bully the companies that supply them.

How do they treat their employees? Do you know any Walmart employees? How do they bully their suppliers? are you a supplier? do you know any suppliers?

[Alan Smithee]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

Wal-Mart does sell the unrated versions of movies in their stores (in several cases, those are the ONLY versions available, which sucks since I always prefer whichever version was shown in theaters) but only after it was clear that the unrated versions usually outsold the rated ones. Blockbuster seems to have done this too- what's really stupid about this is that most of these were cut to avoid an NC-17 rating because those stores won't carry anything with that rating, but they WILL carry these because they don't have a rating at all!

I wonder how many people from Wal-Mart are reading these forums right now? I had to pick up some soda today, and Wal-Mart is closest on my way to work so I usually pick it up there, but today I went out of my way to buy it someplace ELSE instead!