M+E Daily
Wal-Mart Bets on Boxee
Story Highlights
By Paul Sweeting
Streaming video set-top box maker Boxee has landed an exclusive retail distribution deal with Wal-Mart for the new $99 Boxee TV device that features an antenna for receiving over-the-air broadcast signals and DVR with unlimited cloud-based storage, along with a handful of popular over-the-top streaming apps including Wal-Mart’s own Vudu service. The devices will start appearing in 3,000 Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. on Thursday, according to a report by Bloomberg, and will be backed by a major promotional push by the retailer,, including dedicated in-store displays and marketing materials being sent to Wal-Mart customers.
The deal is a coup for the five-year old startup, which has trailed well behind other streaming set-top makers such as Roku and Apple, whose Apple TV is the current market leader. Wal-Mart sells Apple TV devices in-store as well as online and offers Roku boxes via Walmart.com. But the dedicated displays and promotional support will give Boxee TV a major retail presence heading into the crucial holiday selling season.
Beyond its value to Boxee, however, the deal also lands Wal-Mart squarely in the middle of the debate over cord-cutting, and puts the world’s largest retailer firmly on the side of the cord-cutters. With its ability to receive broadcast channels and its DVR capability, along with its $99 price tag, the Boxee TV set-top is clearly aimed at consumers who might want to cut the cord but are reluctant to lose access to local stations.
Wal-Mart’s promotion of Boxee TV will also help increase the footprint of its own Vudu streaming platform by making it accessible to consumers who do not have a smart TV set with the Vudu app embedded. Vudu is available on Roku boxes but is not available on Apple TV. With Boxee TV, Wal-Mart will now be a major seller of a low-cost device that integrates its own, over-the-top streaming platform with access to local channels, bringing it a step closer to offering shrink-wrapped pay-TV in box via the retail channel.
That could end up being a greater long-term threat to established pay-TV providers than Netflix or Hulu will ever be.
