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Walmart teamed with MGM and others on original content for a free streaming service funded by Vudu-powered advertising . According to reports by Variety, Reuters and CNBC, Vudu, which is owned by Walmart, will license original series created by MGM for this service, which will be based on franchises from MGM 's film and TV show catalog. The shows will be family-oriented and exclusive to Vudu.
The news follows rumors that Walmart was working on its own competitor Netflix for subscription video-on-demand, but Vudu says nothing is planned for the moment. However, this is not excluded for the future, noted the company.
For the moment, the focus will be on the short-form originals, which will appear on Vudu's "Movies On Us" service. Launched two years ago in October 2016, "Movies On Us" was Walmart's first foray into free streaming advertising. The service now includes 5,000 movies and TV shows that consumers can watch for free, interrupted by an occasional commercial break. It complements the Vudu Rental and Purchase Library, which has 150,000 films.
MGM's new original series will arrive in the first quarter of 2019 and has been described as "family and advertiser-friendly content". The size of Walmart's investment was unknown, but Vudu told Variety that it was not studio or creating hundreds of new series. In other words, Walmart does not try to impose itself on Netflix and does not spend billions of dollars on this effort either.
MGM and Vudu also did not reveal the type of series being developed, but MGM's film and television library offers many options, as Variety notes. It includes movies like James Bond, Rocky, RoboCop, Pink Panther franchises, 21 Jump Street and The Hobbit, for example.
Vudu plans to allow more programming than MGM, but has not disclosed details of these packages for the time being.
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