Walmart Officially Purges Porn From Vudu

In a move we speculated about in this week's podcast, Walmart has fairly quickly taken action to remove pornographic content from the Vudu HD streaming service. Vudu's AVN channel was gone as of yesterday afternoon. Vudu was the only internet movie streaming service that offered both mainstream Hollywood movies as well as adult content

Here is the letter sent to Vudu's adult content providers.

Dear VUDU After Dark Partner,

As you may have recently heard, VUDU was acquired by Wal-Mart. In conjunction with this acquisition we will be discontinuing the “After Dark” adult service over the coming days. Upon completion of the shutdown process, we will settle all accounts with you and ensure that you are paid the full amount you are owed under our existing agreement.

Attached to this agreement, please find a voluntary termination notice to our existing distribution agreement. As there has been no breach of contract by either party, there are no grounds to terminate the agreement under its existing terms. However, given the discontinuation of After Dark, we believe it makes sense for both sides to voluntary terminate the agreement. The alternative is to allow the agreement to expire under the existing terms, but we believe this is cleaner for all parties.

We ask that you complete, sign and return this termination notice at your earliest convenience. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Walmart evidently has big plans for Vudu. What was once a settop box that offered HD movies has morphed into a service now being included on many devices, among them Vizio TVs, heavily sold at Walmart. If Walmart can use its retailing clout and partnerships to improve consumer awareness of the Vudu service, it may give Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon VOD, and Blu-ray all a run for their money.