Report: Walmart Considering Bundling Membership Program with Paramount+, Disney+, Peacock, More

The good thing — and also the bad thing — about big box superstore Walmart is that you can get pretty much anything you need there, and often for cheaper than you can anywhere else. Now the retail giant is considering a foray into the world of streaming by bundling its Walmart+ membership program with a subscription to a premium streaming service.
A Walmart+ membership entitles consumers to free shipping on orders made online, discounts on gas, and a six-month subscription to Spotify Premium for $12.95 per month. Now, according to the New York Times, Walmart executives have recently had discussions with Paramount, Disney, and Comcast about potentially bringing one of the companies’ streamers to the membership bundle.
The Times was unable to confirm if any of the media companies were interested in moving forward with the proposed partnership, but the deal would not be dissimilar to those that streaming services often have with mobile phone carriers like the one that Verizon announced last month with Disney+ or T-Mobile unveiled in May with multiple live TV streaming services.
As Walmart attempts to compete with the growing ubiquity of Amazon, the retailer is hoping to extend its reach to more facets of customers’ lives beyond the sprawling aisles of its warehouse stores. By providing customers with a free subscription to a streaming service, the company would hope to make the Walmart+ bundle even more invaluable to their daily lives, making less likely for them to unsubcribe. It also wouldn’t hurt that these services would also be in direct competition with Amazon’s Prime Video.
This would not be Walmart’s first attempt to break into the streaming market, in 2010, the retailer purchased digital media hardware and software company Vudu, but was never able to capitalize on the rise of smart and connected TVs and sold to NBCUniversal's Fandango in 2020.
If Walmart is able to secure a deal to bring Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Paramount+, Peacock, or any other subscription service to their membership program, it very well could help them carve out an even bigger section of the retail delivery market currently dominated by Amazon.