Porn Dealt Big Blow by Wal-Mart
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 10:29PM Wal-Mart hit the adult video industry hard today with their purchase of Vudu Inc. Vudu builds a set-top box for watching movies over the Internet, and also licenses their technology to a variety of other providers (Samsung, Toshiba, LG and Sharp, to name a few) for inclusion in Blu-ray players and other Internet-enabled devices.
One of the advantages Vudu has over their competitors in the video download market (competitors like Netflix, Amazon and Apple) is that they struck a deal with the Adult Video Network (AVN), who offer adult content from providers like Vivid, Hustler and Wicked Pictures. Wal-Mart is obviously not going to be interested in tarnishing their conservative, family-friendly image by getting into bed (so to speak) with pornographers.