Tech Shout!

Wal-Mart has shut down its movie and TV shows download service within a year of its commencement. The reason is apparently that Wal-Mart’s technical partner Hewlett-Packard has decided to discontinue powering the service.

The service was closed down on December 21.

Wal-Mart had introduced the service in February 2007 with around 3,000 films and television shows. Subscribers could download such video content on their mobile phones, computers or portable devices using Microsoft Windows Media Player.

Also it is said that the Wal-Mart download service was not very popular as it charged nearly $20 to download new movies and $7.50 for older movies. On the other hand people could buy a physical DVD or rent them at the same price or even lesser.

Wal-Mart had also started selling DRM-free audio tracks in August to make the service attractive. Wal-Mart is selling both unprotected MP3 format and DRM-laden WMA format.

Reportedly Wal-Mart might consider another partner to start the service again. But this time it will have to bring some better addition to make the service popular.