The rumors are true:
Walmart has just announced that it is launching an in-store
“disc-to-digital” service powered by its existing Vudu on-demand
solution, powered by UltraViolet. Walmart has partnered with five
studios: Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Brothers. Adding a
standard definition copy of a DVD or HD copy of a Blu-ray will cost two
dollars, while upgrading DVDs to HD will cost five dollars. Walmart is
also claiming that any movies that customers have acquired through other
UltraViolet sources (like the UltraViolet digital copies that come with
some Blu-ray purchases) will be playable through Vudu, as well. We’ve
heard promises like this before, but UltraViolet integration has been
rather fragmented up to this point, so we’ll see how it works in
practice. This program will roll out in Walmart stores on April 16th.
Walmart stressed that users would keep their discs, but it isn’t clear
yet what Walmart will do to keep multiple users from buying digital
copies from the same DVD or Blu-ray.
Executives from the five movie studios joined Walmart executive VP
John Aden on stage for this event, and the consistent message is that
this will be a “seamless” way for customers to move their physical
movies to the digital realm and that this will be a coming out party for
UltraViolet to help it gain mass awareness and adoption amongst
consumers (something that’s definitely been a problem thus far).
