(6 February 2007 6:35 pm)

MUMBAI:Retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores Inc today begins selling films online as the leading seller of DVDs stakes a claim in the emerging market of movie downloading.

The beta service, powered by new technology from HP Video Merchant Services, includes more than 3,000 movie and TV titles from major Hollywood studios and television networks. Wal-Mart is the first major retailer to offer a video downloads service with the support of all major Hollywood studios.

New movie releases are available for video download on the day of the DVD release and range from $12.88-19.88 and TV shows at $1.96 per episode.

"This marks a significant step for Wal-Mart in home video, and enables us to better serve our customers as they begin to complement their DVD purchases with downloading of digital video content," said Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart's divisional merchandise manager for digital media. "With thousands of movie and TV titles now available for download, coupled with the strength of our successful physical DVD business, this is an unprecedented offering of video content, features and capabilities currently unmatched in the market. Also, we're excited to launch a service that has the support of all the major Hollywood studios."

"Working with HP in digital video combines Wal-Mart's ability to bring exciting content offerings to our customers with the substantial technical capabilities of HP. We anticipate further expanding this service to offer a comprehensive online home video shopping experience that meets our customers' growing needs and allows them to shop a deep selection of movie/TV content in a variety of formats, including video downloads," Swint added.