Walmart Plans Competitor to Amazon’s Video Marketplace

Walmart may launch its own marketplace for OTT channels similar to Amazon.

How would this work? Customers of Walmart’s video service, Vudu, would be able to add specific channels (à la carte ) to their plan.

Big picture: Walmart wants to be Amazon. Amazon wants to be Roku. Who does Roku want to be?

Walmart also recently signed content deals with MGM Holdings to develop ad-supported content for Vudu.

Why does this matter? At a minimum, this would provide more OTT ad inventory (scarce). The big idea would be providing OTT ad inventory that is targetable against Walmart’s shopper data.

Flashback #1: Half of HBO Now, most of Showtime and Starz OTT subscribers coming from Amazon Channels: analyst

% of customers coming from Amazon Channels:
1) HBO: 50%
2) Showtime OTT: 75%

Flashback #2: The Road to À La Carte Television

More: Netflix Spoiled Us Rotten

Flashback #3: TiVo Q4 2017 Online Video & Pay-TV Trends Report

Other key findings:
1) 81% only want to pay for specific channels
2) $33 is the ideal monthly amount
3) 22 is the ideal number of channels
4) $1.50 would be the cost/channel/month