Netflix shares down; Wal-Mart set to promote video service
There was bad news for one video service today and good news for another, Reuters reported.
Shares of top video rental company Netflix Inc. fell more than 9 percent, a day after the company projected a pause in its normally explosive subscriber growth.
Several analysts, though, accepted the company’s view that the slowdown in new customers would be a temporary reaction to an unpopular price increase Netflix announced this month. Netflix said yesterday that it would essentially end the third quarter with the same or slightly higher subscriber numbers as at the end of the second quarter.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., meanwhile, announced it is moving its Vudu video streaming and rental service to a place where it can attract more eyeballs: The Walmart.com website.
Vudu, which Wal-Mart bought last year, streams movies and TV shows to computers, certain televisions, Blu-ray Disc players and Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3.
Wal-Mart declined to disclose how many people use the Vudu service, but did say the user base has tripled since Christmas as it tries to compete with other online video streaming sites.