Wal-Mart quietly closes movie download service

Posted December 28, 2007 at 09:32 AM by Robert Nelson

Section: Audio, Online Music/Video, Content

It seems the movie download business was just not for Wal-Mart. They have closed the service effective December 21, 2007, having it up and running for less than one year. According to a Wal-Mart spokesperson the movie download service was shut down because Hewlett Packard had discontinued the technology that was behind it. Wal-Mart does not currently have any plans to find another partner to power the service, due in part to the service not performing as well “as expected.“

Wal-Mart has not offered any refunds for movies that were currently downloaded. The movies are able to be played on Windows Media Player or the Wal-Mart Video Download Manager, but are not able to be transfered to another computer. Wal-Mart had support of all the major Hollywood movie studios and TV networks however I think they were lacking one important item; flexibility.

Read [Yahoo! News]