The company said it will not look for another technology partner after Hewlett Packard discontinued its video-download-only merchant store services as it performed below expectations.
Wal-Mart has not offer any refund for the movies already downloaded by the customers claiming that the movies would play on the Microsoft Windows Media Player or the Wal-Mart Video Download Manager. However, these movies cannot be transferred to a computer other than the one used to download them.
Wal-Mart became the first major retailer to partner with all six major Hollywood studios and leading TV networks when it launched this service in February 2007. The company had pulled out of its online DVD rental service in 2005 and handed it over to online mail-order movie rental service Netflix.
In a recently announced deal, Apple has partnered with Fox Studios to have Fox movies available for a limited-time viewing through iTunes store as they are release on DVD.
Amazon.com and TiVo also launched a partnership in March 2007 to allow TiVo digital video recorder owners purchase or rent movies and TV shows from Amazon’s Unbox video download service.
Source: ComputerWire daily updates
