Walmart looks set to join the growing streaming content war as it is studying if original content is a viable option for it.
According to a report from Variety, Walmart has teamed up with MGM where the studio will create original series based on properties from its movie and TV catalog. “We feel it will be a great source of family-friendly, advertiser-friendly content – which won’t be viewable anywhere else,” Scott Blanksteen, Vudu’s VP of product and ad-supported VOD, told Variety. He went on to add, “We are not going to be a studio. We are not going to have 300 or 400 originals.”
The first project is said to be part of the Movies On Us program where Vudu shows commercially supported films. The project is set to debut in the early part of 2019. Then, moving forward, there may be more joint ventures later in the year when Walmart debuts a new “shoppable” video ad format that would let you make purchases as you watch.
MGM has an extensive library of properties, but it also has its own channels to take care of, as well as other ventures such as The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. What it will pull from remains to be seen, but the market for original content is getting a bit crowded at this point to be sure.
