Fandango Buys Vudu – What Could This Mean For The Future Of The Service?
By Ben Pearson/April 20, 2020 3:30 pm EST
We’re quarantined for the foreseeable future, and since many people are now spending more time than ever watching things at home, we’re paying extra attention to an acquisition announced today which might end up affecting how your digital library of movies and television operates. Fandango has just entered into an agreement to purchase Vudu from Walmart, which presents a number of interesting possibilities for the future. Let’s break down a few of them.
Vudu’s official blog (via Deadline) has an announcement about Fandango buying Vudu, so let’s take a look at what implications this could have for users everywhere.
Will the Disc to Digital Program Survive?
Currently, Vudu has a disc to digital program which, for as little as $2 apiece and 100 times per year, lets users scan the barcodes of their physical media disks and receive a digital copy. (It costs $5 to upscale a DVD to HD.) This program helps Walmart because it motivates physical disc sales, but once Fandango takes ownership of Vudu, I can imagine it falling by the wayside. Fandango likely does not want to encourage the ownership of physical media, because they’re focused on ticket and digital sales. So if I were a Vudu user, I’d be scrambling to convert as many movies as possible just in case (and crossing my fingers that they figure out a way to port over purchases from all studios, regardless of whether or not they participate in Movies Anywhere).
Potential Benefits
FandangoNow is obviously under the same corporate umbrella as Fandango, the movie ticket purchasing site. Perhaps they could leverage that access point to their advantage and offer a synergistic deal, like purchasing a more expensive movie ticket from Fandango to see a film in theaters and then receiving a digital copy of that movie on FandangoNow (or Vudu, if they do end up keeping it alive). With the coronavirus pandemic changing the industry perception of theatrical windows (thanks in part to Trolls World Tour, which hails from NBCUniversal, the same company that owns Fandango), maybe the company could give folks an extra incentive by offering a deal for an upcharged theatrical ticket and granting access to a digital copy a few days before the rest of the world gets it.
Fandango Buys Vudu – What Could This Mean For The Future Of The Service?
By Ben Pearson/April 20, 2020 3:30 pm EST
We’re quarantined for the foreseeable future, and since many people are now spending more time than ever watching things at home, we’re paying extra attention to an acquisition announced today which might end up affecting how your digital library of movies and television operates. Fandango has just entered into an agreement to purchase Vudu from Walmart, which presents a number of interesting possibilities for the future. Let’s break down a few of them.
Vudu’s official blog (via Deadline) has an announcement about Fandango buying Vudu, so let’s take a look at what implications this could have for users everywhere.
Vudu’s official blog (via Deadline) has an announcement about Fandango buying Vudu, so let’s take a look at what implications this could have for users everywhere.
FandangoNow Could Eventually Absorb Vudu
Will the Disc to Digital Program Survive?
Currently, Vudu has a disc to digital program which, for as little as $2 apiece and 100 times per year, lets users scan the barcodes of their physical media disks and receive a digital copy. (It costs $5 to upscale a DVD to HD.) This program helps Walmart because it motivates physical disc sales, but once Fandango takes ownership of Vudu, I can imagine it falling by the wayside. Fandango likely does not want to encourage the ownership of physical media, because they’re focused on ticket and digital sales. So if I were a Vudu user, I’d be scrambling to convert as many movies as possible just in case (and crossing my fingers that they figure out a way to port over purchases from all studios, regardless of whether or not they participate in Movies Anywhere).
Potential Benefits
FandangoNow is obviously under the same corporate umbrella as Fandango, the movie ticket purchasing site. Perhaps they could leverage that access point to their advantage and offer a synergistic deal, like purchasing a more expensive movie ticket from Fandango to see a film in theaters and then receiving a digital copy of that movie on FandangoNow (or Vudu, if they do end up keeping it alive). With the coronavirus pandemic changing the industry perception of theatrical windows (thanks in part to Trolls World Tour, which hails from NBCUniversal, the same company that owns Fandango), maybe the company could give folks an extra incentive by offering a deal for an upcharged theatrical ticket and granting access to a digital copy a few days before the rest of the world gets it.
