After less than a year, Wal-Mart shuts down video download site

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has canceled its video download service less than a year after the site went live, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

The retailer shut down the download site after Hewlett Packard Co. discontinued the technology that powered it, Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella said in an e-mail. She added that it would not look for another technology partner.

HP spokesman Hector Marinez said the company decided to discontinue its video download-only merchant store services because the market for paid video downloads did not perform “as expected.”

Wal-Mart will continue offering DVDs for sale at its stores and online, Colella said. She declined to disclose the number of downloads sold on the site.

The giant retailer’s venture into online video downloading began in February and was hailed by media industry experts as a “game changer” that could introduce millions of DVD buyers to the practice of downloading.

Wal-Mart was the first major retailer to partner with all of the major Hollywood movie studios and TV networks to offer downloads the same day titles were released on DVD.

The company’s attempt at downloading came two years after it pulled out of online DVD rental and directed its subscribers to Netflix Inc., and months after it protested Walt Disney Co.’s move to sell movies on Apple Inc.’s iTunes online music store at below-retail prices.

A message at www.walmart.com/videodownloads said the service was stopped Dec. 21, and Wal-Mart offered no refunds for the downloaded videos.

Videos purchased on Walmart.com can be played using the Microsoft Windows Media Player or the Wal-Mart Video Download Manager but cannot be transferred to a computer other than the one used to download them, according to the site.