Entone Secures NECA Distribution Deal
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, June 27, 2011 · 
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Entone Inc., a provider of Hybrid TV and Connected Home STB solutions, announced June 22 that it has secured a deal with the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) to make its FusionTV solution available to the organization’s membership.
NECA, which represents more than 1,000 rural telcos in the United States, helps its members deliver high-speed, multi-use broadband services. The organization says that the FusionTV platform will enable its member companies and their broadband affiliates to offer video on demand (VoD) and other over-the-top (OTT) services on the TV. Read more
WalMart Agrees to Buy Movie Service Vudu
Posted by Kevin McGuire on Monday, February 22, 2010 · ·
According to the New York Times, Walmart has agreed to buy movie service Vudu. Vudu is a 3 year old start up founded by industry veterans from companies like TiVo, WebTV, and OpenTV, to name a few. It had deals with major studios bringing the ability to purchase or rent over 5,000 titles through either a stand alone box, or recently embedded into a variety of consumer devices like TVs and DVD players.
While details of the transaction are not known, one can be safe to assume that Wal-Mart is doing it to protect/diversify their DVD sales business. One site that I came across suggested that Walmart made up nearly 40% of the total $17B DVD market back in 2006 (which I believe was before iTunes sold movies).
Will they be successful? Time will tell. With services like Netflix, Blockbuster, and Boxee having a head start, Walmart may have a difficult time differentiating itself in an increasingly crowded market. I’d bet they will adopt one of their time tested strategies to try to compete: low, low prices.