FILE PHOTO – The Walmart logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
April 21, 2020
(Reuters) – Walmart Inc’s video-on-demand service, Vudu, said on Monday it would be acquired by Fandango Media LLC, a movie ticketing service owned by cable company Comcast Corp.
The terms or value of the deal were not disclosed.
Walmart bought Vudu over a decade ago, but the service, which allows customers to either buy or rent movies and TV shows, still lags far behind the monthly viewership numbers that competitors Netflix Inc and Hulu pull in.
But Comcast is betting it can give the site a boost with Fandango, as the loss of cable TV subscribers forces it to focus its future around its internet business.
Comcast’s “Peacock” streaming service was launched last week, with a library of NBC TV shows including 30 Rock and “The Tonight Show.”
Vudu, which also offers a free ad-supported streaming option, said https://blog.vudu.com/vudu-to-be-acquired-by-fandango it will not be shutting down and will still operate separately from the FandangoNow pay-per-view service.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
