Building a digital entertainment bridge to the future

This sounds like a pretty cool deal. Walmart’s wholly-owned video-on-demand subsidiary Vudu and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in an exclusive arrangement this week offered a new type of digital move card for the science fiction film, Battle: Los Angeles.

The cards cost $14.96 and went on sale the same day as the Blu-ray and DVDs. The big difference between buying the physical Blu-ray disc or DVD is customers who purchase the card simply enter a code to access the film directly from a computer or more than 300 different Vudu-enabled consumer electronics devices.

“Digital movie cards are a great way for Walmart’s millions of movie customers to own and watch digital movies through the Vudu service,” said Edward Lichty, general manager, Vudu. “By partnering with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on this exclusive, new movie card, we’re transforming a physical purchase into a digital ownership experience, in a way that is easy for customers to understand and access.”

Sony’s EVP global digital and commercial innovations, John Calkins, added, “Digital movie cards allow us to take digital transactions into high-traffic, brick and mortar retail environments like Walmart, and provide a bridge from the DVD aisle into the digital age. Our goal is not only to educate off-line consumers about the digital films and services available to them, but also to increase the convenience of buying and gifting digital content.”

As for the film, Battle: Los Angeles is rated PG-13 for sustained and intense sequences of war violence, destruction and language that results when Earth is attacked by UFOs.

“As people everywhere watch the world’s great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected,” according to promotional copy for the film. “It’s up to a Marine staff sergeant and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they've ever encountered before.”