“Worried about its massive DVD sales, retail behemoth Wal-Mart has told some of Hollywood’s biggest players it will retaliate against them for selling movies on Apple’s iTunes,” Tim Arango reports for The NY Post.
“Last year when Disney announced it would begin offering episodes of the hit shows ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ on Apple’s iTunes, the reaction of the world’s largest retailer sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry,” Arango reports.
“Wal-Mart, worried that offering the shows for viewing on iPods would cut into DVD sales at its stores, sent ‘cases and cases’ of DVDs back to Disney, according to a source familiar with the matter,” Arango reports. “Now, following Apple’s entrance in to the business of selling full-length films for download, the battle between Hollywood and its largest client is getting uglier, as studio executives say Wal-Mart has overtly threatened to retaliate if they go into business with Apple.”
“The last thing studios want to do before the holiday shopping season is to offend their biggest sales outlet; the studios, collectively, rely on Wal-Mart for some $5 billion of DVD sales in the fourth quarter,” Arango reports.
“But several weeks ago, in the midst of rumors that Apple was close to announcing a deal with Disney, Wal-Mart’s David Porter – the executive responsible for stocking the retailer’s shelves with DVDs and CDs and whose influence is so immense in Tinseltown that he’s been named to Premiere magazine’s annual power list – made the rounds of Hollywood studios,” Arango reports. “His message, according to a studio exec involved in the discussions: that there would be ‘serious ramifications’ if the studios hopped in bed with Apple.”
“‘They threatened to hurt us in terms of buying less products,’ said this person. The situation between Bentonville and Hollywood has gotten so heated and so high-level that Jobs recently phoned Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott to ask him to moderate his stance, according to a source,” Arango reports.
Full article here.
Even a low-class anticompetitive cancer like Wal-Mart won’t be able to hold back the future. Wal-Mart logic: we can undercut every business in every town in the world, but you can’t do it to us. If you agree with that logic, by all means shop at Wal-Mart.
WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price: http://www.walmartmovie.com/
Related articles:
Wal-Mart: we’re not fighting iTunes Store movie downloads – September 23, 2006
Wal-Mart not happy with looming threat of Apple iTunes movie downloads – August 31, 2006
Wal-Mart loses ‘philosophical argument’ with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, gains top-selling iPod – November 29, 2005
So, because a Reuters ticker quotes a WalMart spokesperson as disputing the original claim then all has been set right in the land of make believe!
You are so wise. You have opened all our eyes to the truth!
Good call, MDN. Walmart is bad for America, killing every mom and pop business around and being strongly anti-union to keep worker’s rights as low as possible. I wish people would wise-up and stop shopping there.
Persomally, I don’t give a shit about Mom & Pop, who usually complain having to medernize, never clean or uodate their stores, and have combative attitudes (customer service).
Actually, I like the new Walmart Supercenters (grocery store included!)
Especially since they are including so many organic products now.
should have read “about having to modernize”
Walmart saves millions of people money everyday, which gives the average consumer more buying power, and somehow that is evil?
Evil is forcing jobs to be exported to Third World swamps and sweat shops.
Evil is being a BIG trampler of employee rights, and helping to reduce the American workforce into an expendable commodity.
Evil is the Wal-Mart Paradox: where people who work there can only afford to shop there. Sounds like something from the bad old days of company stores.
Evil is killing entire business communities. There is no choice when Wa-Mart IS the choice!
Need I go on? Evil is doing all the above in the name of money.
Especially since they are including so many organic products now.
Spinach too? LOL
It’s a toss-up.
Yes, jobs are exported (not that Walmart is alone here); yet a whole class of people can buy various goods that would be ordinarily out of reach.
So, moderation.
Yes, I shop at Walmart (actually only occasionally), as well as “Mom& Pops”.
But I as serious about my “Mom & Pop” complaints,
In a global world, I shop where I perceive the best price/customer service ratio to be.
I was with the MDN write-up until I actually watched that trailer. Short version: I hope the movie itself has something of substance, because the trailer was COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY UNCONVINCING. Is that the best they’ve got against Walmart? Not what I’d been lead to believe, but watching that trailer didn’t even remotely convince me of what evil Walmart is actually doing.
Now the pressure on studios, on the other hand, is convincing. But seems like we have only limited hear-say in that case.
I heard from a friend that Walmart has been bullying all its suppliers.
Man, (some of) you guys got me really worried. I fully agree w/mac user 47.
Or is it that there are some guys wearing fatigues sitting in a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains logging in with different names and making comments here over and over again?
If you don’t like Walmart, don’t go but don’t expect the majority of the population of the USA to suddenly stop going to Walmart because of this.
Buy Apple’s movies on-line and choose alternative stores to buy your cheap electronics and laundry detergent but just keep in mind that there are people out there who do spend time clipping coupons and checking out the weekly flyers and ending up @ Walmart.
E-mail withheld to avert any potential of Mac-users showing up in the bushes in front of my company wearing Gillie Suits.
Whether or not this is accurate (which Walmart PR will refute) I have refused to give this retailer any of my money based on what they’ve done to small towns all across the country. Two reasons Walmart would never do this…Best Buy and Target (both happy to sell DVDs to former Walmart customers).
No, po ru. Not The Appalachians.
CRAWFORD, TX
(Where a grade C average, former Conn. preppie now lives, fake swagger/dialect and all.)…
GUEST: Can you drink this? (asks while reaching down to the water)
DUBYA: Sure.
GUEST takes a handful to his mouth.
DUBYA: Except for the cow sh*t.
GUEST “spit take” ensues.
— Dubya playing the consummate host on his ranch, Crawford, Texas, date unknown
<a >Wal-Mart</a> can suck my bawls.
Wal-Mart can suck my bawls.