Competition in the streaming industry is getting tougher. Indeed, Walmart recently announced its intention to create its own streaming service. According to the New York Times, the company has already advanced its first pawns by engaging in discussions with major media companies such as Disney, Paramount, Comcast. Apparently, representatives of these media companies have been investigating the possibility of including movies and TV shows in the “Walmart Plus” membership package.
Remember that this is not the first time that Walmart has tried to get involved in the streaming service. Twelve years ago, the company bought Vudu for a whopping $100 million. It is a streaming service that does not require a subscription but instead charges for renting or buying individual titles. Having failed to break into the market, Walmart resold Vudu in 2020.
Could this streaming agreement with Disney, Paramount, Comcast succeed?
To date, we still don’t know if any of these streaming companies are willing to contract with Walmart in order to compete with Amazon Prime. Moreover, these companies already dominate the market. Disney operates ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu at the same time, and Paramount operates the Paramount+ and Showtime services while Comcast owns the Peack streaming service. It would be very surprising if they agree to sell content to Walmart.
Besides, there are several ways Walmart could approach this project. The first assumption is that it’s going to license a lot of content and put together an original team to create Walmart exclusives. The second is that Walmart could create something like the Roku channel, that is, an ad-supported service.
Walmart Plus subscription details
A Walmart Plus subscription is $12.95 per month and includes free shipping on orders and fuel discounts. Joining this membership gives you access to faster checkout as well as special member-only offers like Amazon’s Premium Membership.
It seems obvious that Walmart is looking for ways to inspire more brand loyalty and bring people into its subscription universe. However, the company still has a long way to go before reaching the top.
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