Wal-Mart launches video download service

February 07, 2007 Wal-Mart, already the nation's top seller of DVDs, said Tuesday that it has become the first major retailer to offer a digital download service that will feature movies from all the major studios. The product, in beta, allows consumers to choose from more than 3,000 movie and TV titles and download them to the PCs usually at a cost less than that of iTunes, the Apple Inc. online store that began selling video downloads more than a year ago. The business of delivering popular video content on-demand over the Internet is a small but growing one, and becoming increasingly competitive and complicated, with such players as Netflix, CinemaNow and Movielink offering titles with differing rules attached, some for rent and some for sale.

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