Vudu

Vudu is an American digital video store and streaming service owned by Walmart. The company offers transactional video on demand rentals and digital purchases of films, as well as integration with digital locker services for streaming digital copies of films purchased as home video at retail.

Vudu, Inc.
Subsidiary
IndustryP2P/TV
Founded25 November 2004 
FoundersAlain Rossmann
Tony Miranz
Headquarters
Sunnyvale, California
,
United States
Area served
United States
ServicesVideo content delivery
ParentWalmart
Websitewww.vudu.com

The service initially focused on an eponymous digital media player known as the Vudu Box. In 2010, the company began to abandon its hardware business, and focus on integrating its service and associated app platform into third-party devices such as televisions and Blu-ray Disc players. The company has since offered its services online, via mobile apps, and on devices such as digital media players and smart TVs.[1]

In 2020, after being acquired by Walmart in 2010, it was announced that Fandango Media would acquire Vudu for an undisclosed amount.

History

Vudu was founded by Tony Miranz and Alain Rossmann (the creator of WAP). The Vudu Box had been secretly in development since 2004, but on April 29, 2007, The New York Times revealed that Vudu had signed deals with many movie studios and independent distributors to deliver access to nearly 5,000 films.[2]

As of April 2007, Vudu had received $21 million in venture capital funding from Greylock Partners and Benchmark Capital.[3] The company is based in Santa Clara, California.

In May 2008, Vudu began displaying and selling its set-top box in Best Buy stores. Before this time, the box was only available via online retailers.[4] In October, Vudu announced that it would begin to stream films in 1080p high definition, branded as "HDX".[5] These films would feature a series of encoding and processing techniques branded as "TruFilm", including the dampening of artifacting and pixelation associated with darker areas of pictures, film grain preservation, "color gradient processing" to improve appearance on flat-panel televisions, and "statistical variable bitrate" to optimize streaming performance.[5]

On February 24, 2009, Vudu became the first on-demand service to offer high-definition movies for download to own. Prior to Vudu allowing users to purchase high-definition movies, studios only allowed their films to be purchased in standard-definition format.[6] LG was the first to integrate Vudu into its HDTVs, with access beginning in August 2009 though the TV's NetCast application.[7][8]

On January 8, 2010 at Consumer Electronics Show, Vudu announced that it would phase out its in-house hardware business, in favor of focusing on integration of its rich Internet application platform,[9] "Vudu Apps" (which featured Vudu as well as other streaming video and internet services), directly into internet-connected televisions and Blu-ray players, with initial hardware partners including LG, Magnavox, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba, and Vizio.[10][11]

On February 22, 2010, Walmart announced its intent to acquire Vudu. The company had previously attempted to offer digital video sales in 2007, but the service folded due to competition with iTunes Store.[12] In order to comply with Walmart's content policies, Vudu subsequently discontinued its "After Dark" service (a collaboration with AVN), which offered pornographic content.[13]

In 2012, Vudu partnered with UltraViolet, an industry-backed digital locker offering online streaming of retail DVD and Blu-ray disc purchases.[14] In 2014, Vudu also joined Disney's competing Movies Anywhere initiative.[15]

In February 2020, it was reported that Comcast (via NBCUniversal) had entered talks into acquiring Vudu from Walmart.[16] In April 2020, it was announced that NBCUniversal subsidiary Fandango Media (minority owned by Warner Bros., and operator of the similar service FandangoNow) would acquire Vudu for an undisclosed amount, with the sale expected to close later in the year. As part of the sale, Walmart will maintain its relationships with Vudu, including account integration and promotion of the service via Walmart's website. The service is expected to operate as a compliment to NBCUniversal's Peacock service.[17][18]

Content

As of June 2019, Vudu's selection contains over 24,000 titles in their catalog and over 8,000 television shows, making it one of the largest streaming providers of its kind. Titles range from major motion pictures, independent films, documentaries, children's programming, anime, musicals, recorded musical performances, cartoons, and television series. Vudu has established content licensing contracts with all major movie studios as well as over 50 smaller and independent studios. Films are available to rent in standard-definition, high-definition, and 4K ultra high definition formats, with Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and HDR10 available on supported devices and content.

In October 2016, Vudu added a free, ad-supported streaming library to its platform in the United States branded as "Movies On Us", featuring recent and classic films.[19][20][1]

In October 2018, Vudu partnered with MGM Television to develop and acquire original programming for Movies On Us, with a focus on "family-friendly, advertiser-friendly content" derived from existing MGM properties.[19] Vudu premiered its first original series, Mr. Mom—a continuation of the 1983 film of the same name, on September 12, 2019.[21]

See also

References
  1. Spangler, Todd (18 October 2016). "Walmart's Vudu Launches Free Movie, TV Service With Thousands of Titles". Variety. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. Stone, Brad (29 April 2007). "Vudu Casts Its Spell on Hollywood". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  3. "Faultline: Vudu, RawFlow and Joost all target web video services – Analyst Insights". HPInnovator. 2 May 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  4. Ault, Susanne (22 May 2008). "Vudu casts boxes onto Best Buy shelves". Video Business. Archived from the original on 30 June 2008. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  5. Ha, Peter (2 October 2008). "Vudu officially announces full HD service, HDX". TechCrunch. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  6. "Press Release". VUDU. 24 February 2009. Archived from the original on 24 March 2009.
  7. Chabot, Jeff (29 July 2009). "LG first to bring Hulu to HDTVs". HD Report. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  8. Albanesius, Chloe (22 February 2010). "Wal-Mart Confirms Plans to Buy Vudu". PCMag.com. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  9. Wilson, Mark (16 December 2008). "VUDU Offering 120 Channels of Free Media with New App Platform". Gizmodo. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  10. Pogue, David (10 February 2010). "Vudu Lives (Outside the Box)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  11. Clark, Don (8 January 2010). "New TV Apps Borrow a Page From iPhone". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  12. Bustillo, Miguel (23 February 2010). "Wal-Mart Re-Enters Digital Downloading of Movies With Purchase of Vudu". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  13. Siegler, MG (24 February 2010). "Hot And Bothered: Walmart Shutting Down Vudu's Adult Section". Washington Post. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
  14. Keys, Phil (16 March 2012). "Vudu/UltraViolet: Make or Break Moment for UltraViolet and Walmart". Forbes. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  15. "Disney Movies Anywhere Now Works with Vudu". Vudu Blog. 17 November 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  16. Goldsmith, Jill (21 February 2020). "Comcast In Talks To Buy Walmart's Streaming Service Vudu". Deadline. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  17. Brown, Shelby. "Walmart to sell Vudu to Fandango". CNET. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  18. Alexander, Julia. "Fandango just purchased Vudu from Walmart to better compete against Amazon, iTunes". The Verge. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  19. Perez, Sarah (8 October 2018). "Walmart partners with MGM on original programming for Vudu". TechCrunch.
  20. "Walmart launches a free streaming service, Vudu Movies on Us". TechCrunch. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  21. Pedersen, Erik (26 August 2019). "'Mr. Mom' Trailer: First Original Series From Walmart's Vudu Streaming Service". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
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