Netflix angered many of their loyal customers last month when they raised pricing for their DVD-by-mail and Streaming services by 60 percent and now it appears Walmart and their Vudu service are reaping the benefits of that decision.
According to a recent study conducted by the IHS Screen Digest Media Research Vudu now has more subscribers than Amazon and the Sony Playstation store in terms of online store rankings.
Walmart.com has prominently been featuring Vudu on their homepage, while various DVDs sold by the retail giant have come with free trial certificates for the service which rents movies on a one-by-one basis. Walmart’s aggressive advertising and Netflix’s faltering user base appears to be working, in the first half of 2010 Vudu controlled less than one percent of the online U.S. movie market with that number climbing in the first half of 2011 to 5.3 percent.
While the system doesn’t compete directly with Netflix and their monthly subscription plan, their a la carte system does allow users to pick up DVDs in the company’s stores or have them delivered to their home for viewing with prices ranging from $1 to $5.99 per title.
Blockbuster Video also offers a DVD by mail service, however they do not currently give customers the option to stream movies from their platform.
For some situations I still find Netflix useful, for example they stream a good selection of television shows and miniseries and as a movie junkie I gain far more value out of the sites unlimited rentals than I would renting 8-10 movies each month at $5 a piece. Where do you stand when it comes to choosing Netflix as a monthly service provider or ordering your movies a la carte from Vudu?
