VUDU TO BE ACQUIRED BY FANDANGO

[jeremymc7]

There was a clear and defined window to fix issues with UV before things severed. Multiple emails were sent out. I spent a fair amount of time resolving issues with them.

Once things closed that was it. There was nothing no one could do after that.

Fandango wasn't going to gift titles that it didn't clearly show rights to.

Not that they potentially weren't the weak link in getting issues resolved between UV and then. When things started to ramp to a close between them I've sure staff on both sides were less than motivated to resolve issues and were overloaded as well.

I've used FandangoNOW chat many times to resolve issues with UV and they were always attentive and prompt.

[MaskedMan]

When UV up and running the majority of the titles listed on FandangoNow in the UV section wouldn't play, the content isn't available it said. Once the merge happen ALL titles now play without any troubles. So if the title is missing it probably didn't play in the first place so there isn't any reason to keep it around, or miss it.

[seezar]

There was a clear and defined window to fix issues with UV before things severed. Multiple emails were sent out. I spent a fair amount of time resolving issues with them.

Once things closed that was it. There was nothing no one could do after that.

Fandango wasn't going to gift titles that it didn't clearly show rights to.

Not that they potentially weren't the weak link in getting issues resolved between UV and then. When things started to ramp to a close between them I've sure staff on both sides were less than motivated to resolve issues and were overloaded as well.

I've used FandangoNOW chat many times to resolve issues with UV and they were always attentive and prompt.

A buddy of mine had his FandangoNow account connected to UV when UV was shutting down. All his UV movies at that time were showing in his FandangoNow library (under the ultraviolet section). Things were fine at that point. Shortly after FandangoNow at a later date moved the ultraviolet section into the FandangoNow library he lost about 300 movies. He reached out to FandangoNow and they basically told him sorry there is nothing they will do since the movies werent purchased at FandangoNow.

Here was their response:

Thank you for your previous contact and your interest in FandangoNOW.

After further investigation, these titles where not purchased directly from FandangoNOW, but through a 3rd party retailer. These titles appears to be Ultraviolet purchases, Ultraviolet has since sunset and all instructions provided by Ultraviolet regarding title transfers have been completed.
.
Though we are sorry to hear that you were displeased with your experience, we are not able to grant your request.

Again, we apologize for the issue. Thank you for your patience and understanding

We hope this information helps and thank you for making FandangoNOW your choice for online movie streaming!

[william92371]

Well, joy. I've purchased about 50 movies disc to digital in the past month, alone-most via blu-ray, but some via DVD-and about 40% don't have the Movies Anywhere logo.

Marathon Man, The Conspirator, The Lincoln Lawyer, Terms of Endearment, Catch Me If You Can, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Collateral, High Noon, Little Caesar, Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, Shutter Island, Mulholland Drive, Amistad, Enemy At the Gates, The Odd Couple, Rosemary's Baby, City of God, All is Lost, Almost Famous, Days of Thunder, 3 Days of the Condor, Hero, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Master, Revolutionary Road, Ordinary People, Clear and Present Danger, True Lies, Patriot Games, The Sum of All Fears, Hunt For Red October, Reservoir Dogs, The Fighter, There Will Be Blood, Kill Bill vols 1 and 2, Le Mepris, Wings, Hugo, Good Will Hunting, The Untouchables....

That's about 6 weeks worth of purchases that aren't under Movies Anywhere.

I've got 619 films, and 28 television seasons. About 40% of my blu-ray collection is available at just the touch of a remote button. If I lose a good chunk of these, I'm going to severely ticked. I was born with a congenital bone disease, and I can go a month or more at a time on bed rest, so I can't get up to switch out a blu-ray.

I've spent a good amount converting, and I know that some of you have spent a lot more than I have. And I'd spend a lot more if films on boutique labels like Criterion or Warner Archive could be added, and I had assurances that they weren't just going to disappear.

[jeremymc7]

Well, joy. I've purchased about 50 movies disc to digital in the past month, alone-most via blu-ray, but some via DVD-and about 40% don't have the Movies Anywhere logo.

That's about 6 weeks worth of purchases that aren't under Movies Anywhere.

I've got 619 films, and 28 television seasons. About 40% of my blu-ray collection is available at just the touch of a remote button. If I lose a good chunk of these, I'm going to severely ticked. I was born with a congenital bone disease, and I can go a month or more at a time on bed rest, so I can't get up to switch out a blu-ray.

I've spent a good amount converting, and I know that some of you have spent a lot more than I have. And I'd spend a lot more if films on boutique labels like Criterion or Warner Archive could be added, and I had assurances that they weren't just going to disappear.

This is going to be a wait and see situation.

However, FandangoNOW has movies that aren't MoviesAnywhere too.

The likelihood is that both collections will be merged.

But we'll have to see.

[jtullier]

What happened to Disc Plus Digital? All offers, menu selections, and reference has been removed from the site and app. Figures.

[jeremymc7]

What happened to Disc Plus Digital? All offers, menu selections, and reference has been removed from the site and app. Figures.

Nope. Still there.

https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/...isc-Digital/76

[Cranston37]

What happened to Disc Plus Digital? All offers, menu selections, and reference has been removed from the site and app. Figures.

Did you expect Fandango to turn itself into a physical retailer in order to keep that program alive?

[jeremymc7]

Did you expect Fandango to turn itself into a physical retailer in order to keep that program alive?

Program is still well alive and kicking. See my prior email with link to everything available on D+D.

Vudu moves around their collections and sometimes removes ones from general view. IE D+D in this case for right now, when they add other, Say Mothers Day. This sometimes happens in one place like the web site or on the Roku app, or maybe in all places. In general the website still has all the various collections just the link to the program was viewed from view.

There?s are hundreds or thousands of these various collections pages. I started to map them all out for others but at a certain point it just got to be too much work. Instead I just saved bookmarks for the pages I care out such as Disc + Digiral, Disc to Digital, Redeem digital movie code ( works for all movies instead of going to the specific movie page)? Redeem digits movie credit ($2-$5) which pop up each time.

Regards.

[Fendoren]

Disc + Digital is now official dead as of this morning

[jeremymc7]

Disc + Digital is now official dead as of this morning

Quite possibly. I mean the page is still there. It just doesn't have any titles in it.

But then pre-orders only has 12 titles in it too.

CV has really messed with a lot of things. There's also a lot of "housekeeping" that needs to happen between Vudu (Walmart) and FandangoNow. I'm sure things will go away, some for good, others will come back, and still other new & different things will emerge.

Need to wait and see.

INTERESTINGLY, Walmart still has InstaWatch up. Now if it's still properly linked O can't say since I already purchased all the recent InstaWatch / D+D titles in the last week.

https://www.walmart.com/search/?cat_...eahead=instawa

[RayDyer]

Like many of you, I've been thinking about this change a lot lately. I've probably sunk around $10,000 into Vudu since I started buying digital movies, and something tells me that there are a lot of people on these forums who make that look like a small investment.

So, my question is - what does it really mean to buy Vudu?

For instance, when a wireless company buys another wireless company, they buy accounts. They are paying the smaller company for each customer, with the understanding that most of those accounts will stick around and pretty immediately start paying the new company. They start making money on a monthly basis from the customers they "bought."

In this case, Vudu doesn't get monthly payments. There are accounts, but in this case I would think that each account is more of a drain than a revenue stream. If I watch one of my movies, that's money that Vudu got as much as a decade ago. The new company isn't making cash on that. They would only make money on my account if I buy a new movie, or rent something, etc.

So, what is Fandango Now buying? The Vudu name? Maybe. The only thing that Vudu seems to have is a lot of existing accounts full of already purchased movies...and a massive library (that largely overlaps with the library FN already has).

I guess my point is - we're worried (justifiably so) about losing our collections in this transition. Especially our non-MA collections, which is about half of all my movies, personally.

But, if FN wants to continue generating revenue off of the accounts they are purchasing, they have to give people a reason to keep buying. Removing thousands of movies from individual collections would go against that.

Maybe I'm being naively optimistic, but following the money seems to give a genuine reason for FN to do everything they can to keep collections just as they are. Because, really, what they are buying, is the movies in those collections.

Thoughts?

[jeremymc7]

Like many of you, I've been thinking about this change a lot lately. I've probably sunk around $10,000 into Vudu since I started buying digital movies, and something tells me that there are a lot of people on these forums who make that look like a small investment. So, my question is - what does it really mean to buy Vudu? Thoughts?

Just something you have to be aware of when you move into the digital world.

I couldn't give away my LaserDisc collection. Likewise with my DVD collection it would have been sell it all at once or piece mill.

My CD collection of thousands of CD's went to goodwill when I moved it to my iTunes collection. It wasn't worth selling. I didn't want all the extra clutter in the house. So away it went for free even though I paid through the nose for it. Same for LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, etc.

I used to keep backups of everything on hard drives including the CD's that went to iTunes and the movies. At a point the amount of spent on drives, esp with BD or 4K file sizes got to be too much.

What I've said we've needed from the start is a iTunes or Spotify service for movies. You pay $25/mth and you have access to match every movie.

The music industry figured out how we can $10/mth and listen to a vast and broad music collection. Movies & TV. Not so much.

[bestquality]

They're buying the customer base and market share. There's no reason to think any purchases will be lost barring contractual issues with defunct studios. It's in everyone's interests to make sure customers remain whole. The concern was if Vudu couldn't find a buyer. Now they'll be effectively be owned by two studios. They have every reason to make sure customers are satisfied with the product and transition. It's an open question to what that transition looks like though. Will they keep accounts separate? Will be able to merge them? Will a merge be forced or optional?

[jeremymc7]

I think the bigger question / concern from above (not me) was that not only could we possibly loose titles in a conversion but what about loosing the thousands spenting only buying digital if Vudu or FN finally go under. Per my point that's something you should know and risk whenever buying something that is virtual, not physical. But in my case once you move on to the next physical format the prior physical is of little value, to me.

I also have titles in FandangoNow as well that are not MA or in Vudu. Will those get merged? We'll see.