An acquisition of Walmart’s digital movie retailer and streaming service Vudu is underway and being made by Fandango, Comcast’s counterpart of the same service, Reuters said on Monday.
After years of premeditating the move, the said acquisition is finally talking place to strengthen Fandango’s competitive edge in the video streaming business.
Although the sale has already been announced officially, the purchase amount remains undisclosed. Fandango gives an assurance that more details will be announced after the deal is finalized.
Acquired for its digital popularity
Currently, Vudu is on more than 100 million living room devices, and its mobile app has reached a total of 14 million downloads. Such digital popularity has been deemed valuable by Comcast.
It can be recalled that Fandango has been trying to compete with Amazon and Apple’s iTunes in the previous months. This makes one of the reasons why such an acquisition took place.
Walmart vende su servicio on-demand Vudu a Fandango. Llegaba a 100 millones de hogares enabled y su App tenía 14.4 millones de downloads https://t.co/T80bzS332q
— 1984 Media Consulting (@1984MediaCon) April 20, 2020
In search for growth
One of Fandango’s mission is to rapidly grow its streaming business in the most efficient way possible, and as it appears, purchasing a well-established streaming service enabled it to sprightly capture a large part of the industry’s consumers.
This is due to Vudu’s current portfolio of long-standing viewers who are composed of solid home video enthusiasts and spirited game aficionados.
Vudu is “a great buy”
Since its purchase in 2010, Walmart has been trying to sell off Vudu to companies in order to focus on their core propositions. It was only in February 2020 when talks about the current acquisition have commenced.
While some critics have spawned doubt as to the wisdom behind the acquisition, others stand firm with their belief that the purchase was made with a wise judgment – seeing how the current pandemic has made significant changes in the way digital retailers will be showing their films.
https://twitter.com/newley/status/1252675479158566918?s=20
Leaning towards digital releases
It has been quite evident how Disney, Warner Bros., and other studios are starting to finalize their decision to forgo the theatrical release of their films now that most theaters have been shut down.
Release dates of films such as Pixel’s Soul, Mulan, Black Widow, and The Eternals have been pushed back as well as summer blockbusters like F9 and Wonder Woman 1984. With a huge number of these films being delayed successively, more and more studios are beginning to engage in talks about possible digital releases to address viewer demands sustained by the undetermined duration of the current lockdown.
Meanwhile, Vudu retains its statement that it will still be operating independently from the FandangoNow pay-per-view service to cater to its viewers coming from the free ad-supported streaming option.
Walmart's streaming service to be bought by Comcast-owned Fandango https://t.co/XtcmG3iUcn pic.twitter.com/eOO2JsLo9Y
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 20, 2020
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