NEW YORK – Now playing: Movies at Walmart.com.
The world’s largest retailer Tuesday started streaming many movies the same day they come out on DVD, in a second bid for a share of popular movie rental and streaming website Netflix Inc.’s business and just two weeks after Netflix announced new price increases.
Walmart Stores Inc. bought video-streaming service Vudu.com 18 months ago and now offers 20,000 titles that can be viewed on almost any device with Internet access, from computers to TVs to Sony’s PlayStation3 and other Blu-Ray disc players.
Movies are available at Walmart.com to rent for $1 to $5.99 or to purchase for $4.99 and up. Walmart is not offering subscriptions, making its service more similar to Apple Inc.’s iTunes, which charges $3.99 to rent newly released movies and $14.99 to buy a movie.
In addition to Netflix, another rival streaming movies and TV shows by subscription is Hulu.com, which now offers a premium service for $7.99 a month with more back-season shows and more movies. Without a subscription, Hulu viewers can watch shows and movies free in exchange for watching ads.
The movie offering fits with the Walmart website’s strategy of offering a “seamless continuous shopping service,” said Steve Nave, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart.com.
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