News: Vudu To Be Acquired By Fandango

Vudu, a well known digital movie distributor announced today that it has "entered into an agreement to be acquired by Fandango," according to this posting on its blog.  The blog post states that "nothing about the Vudu experience is changing – your movie & TV library is safe, and you will continue to have access to all your Vudu apps across your favorite devices."  The blog post goes on to state that there would be "many more exciting things to share in the months ahead" and that "the future will bring more new features, offerings, and other benefits as we join the Fandango family."

The blog post also references a new FAQ with additional details.  The FAQ makes sure to mention that Vudu is not shutting down, that customers movies and TV shows will still be in their library and they will still have access to them, that digital copies can still be redeemed on Vudu, and that promotional codes and offers are still valid.  And although the blog mentions that right now, it plans to keep both FandangoNOW and Vudu as fully operational ecosystems, it states that "[i]n the months ahead, we will explore ways to bring great online entertainment experiences to our valued customers."  This implies that at some point the two entities will merge.

Personally, I don't love this as more digital movie distributors usually meant better deals on various sites.  Vudu frequently has sales on movies and FandangoNOW has their own $5 sales.  If you find Movies Anywhere movies from either, then the movies would go across services so where you bought it from didn't matter.  And having more distributors meant more opportunities for the movies you liked going on sale.  This could also be bad if the new Vudu/FandangoNOW entity decides to cut off app support for Vudu, since Vudu's app is widely available and works well.  FandangoNOW has no native app on Apple TV, so losing Vudu would mean fewer native ways to watch content.

Only time will tell what this means for the movie going public.  Pleas post your own thoughts below!  We'd love to hear what you think!