Wal-Mart Gives Up Movie Downloads, Keeps CDs, DVDs
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The retailer turns its download service, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of all DVD sales, over to Netflix after its software provider, Hewlett-Packard, discontinues its own merchant-store service.
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LOS ANGELES -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has launched its long-awaited online movie download store, entering a market that has yet to catch on with consumers but is expected to grow rapidly.
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Blockbuster Inc. is cutting the cost of its monthly online rental service, the latest salvo in a price war with Netflix Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  on  Tuesday introduced a test version of its new video download  service, making it the first major retailer to offer such a  service with the backing of all of Hollywood's big studios.
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NEW YORK - Hollywood's love affair with DVDs will face its biggest test beginning Tuesday as Wal-Mart unveils a movie and TV-show download service with participation by all major studios. New releases will be available at    www.walmart.com/videodownloads on the same day they come out on DVD and will cost up to $19.88. Older films will go for up to $9.88. TV episodes will be $1.96 the day after they air. Networks on board include Fox, CW and Viacom's MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Logo and VH1.
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Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD products, it said Tuesday, handing victory to rival high definition disc format Blu-ray Disc.The company will no longer develop, manufacture, and market HD DVD players and recorders.It will reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail markets and aims to cease the businesses altogether by the end of March.But the Japanese electronics giant pledged to provide full product support and after-sales service for owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.Recent changes in the market prompted the decision, Toshiba said. Early this year,&#160;Warner Bros. said it would stop issuing movies on HD DVD&#160;in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. The Hollywood studio was one of three major studios remaining in the HD DVD camp, and its defection created widespread belief that the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc was now over.More recently, major U.S. retail chain&#160;Wal-Mart announced it would phase out the sale of HD DVD products, moving to exclusivity with Blu-ray Disc. Electronics retailer Best Buy also said it would back Blu-ray Disc, but it did not say it would stop offering HD DVD.Warner made its decision based on consumer confusion and indifference to high definition movies, an indifference that cost Hollywood in lost revenue, it said. Wal-Mart said U.S. customers preferred Blu-ray Disc movies and hardware. Blu-ray Disc is the high definition disc format championed by Sony.&quot;This once again shows why incompatible and mutually exclusive formats should be avoided at all cost by the industry,&quot; said Carl Gressum, a senior analyst at Ovum. &quot;It reduces profitability and delays customer adoption.&quot;&quot;The big question is, however, the impacts on Toshiba as an electronics company,&quot; he added. &quot;It has after all bet its disc media business on HD DVD, as well as gone for HD DVD integration into some of its laptop PCs. The channel has inventory to clear, and demands from owners of HD DVD players.&quot;Toshiba said its decision came after careful analysis of the long-term impact of continuing the format war, and said a swift decision was called for to help the high definition market develop.The company also pledged to remain a player in the high definition market. Developing HD DVD created many assets for Toshiba and its partners, which include Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Universal Studios, the company said. Toshiba plans to work with these companies to seek future business opportunities.&#160;&#160;
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , the world&#39;s biggest retailer, suffered another blow to its star status on Wednesday when a leading US investment bank downgraded the company&#39;s stock.
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Retailer will let customers download and burn their choice, easing the need for an inventory of discs.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Friday  denied it was not trying to dissuade movie studios from working  with other forms of distribution, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s  iTunes download service.
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Retail giant Wal-Mart has taken the wraps off a bare-bones, US&#36;498 Linux notebook that, while not exactly a stocking-stuffer, provides basic computing at a price that is tough to beat.
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SONY&#39;S music unit is abandoning its CDs that use built-in technology that limits copying them, after pushing the program for two years.
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The message against illegally copying CDs for uses such as in file-sharing over the Internet has widely sunk in, said the company in it&#39;s recent announcement to drop the Copy-Control program.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT.N, the  world's biggest retailer, suffered another blow to its star  status on Wednesday when a leading U.S. investment bank  downgraded the company's stock.
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Sony Corp.&#39;s music unit is abandoning its CDs that use built-in technology that limits copying them, after pushing the program for two years.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched an online music store that works with Microsoft Corp.&#39;s Windows Media Player, the world&#39;s largest retailer said on Thursday.
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES  - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Tuesday introduced a test version of its new video download service, making it the first major retailer to offer such a service with the backing of all of Hollywood's big studios.
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Wal-Mart is reducing the price of its online program.