Save Money, Live Better ... Watch Movies?

Retail giant Walmart announced Tuesday, the launch of their streaming movie service, powered by vudu - the video-on-demand company they purchased last fall.

Interesting to note, that the launch of this new video-on-demand service comes only 2 weeks after Netflix announced rate hikes that were very unpopular with may of their subscribers.

Walmart will offer regular definition movies for $3.99 and high definition (HD) movies at $5.99 - a price point more expensive than its competitors - who give you unlimited monthly access for as low as $8 a month. Walmart's offering seems more geared towards the more casual movie viewer who may only rent one or two movies a month.

Walmart is banking on there being a lot more of this type of casual movie watchers than hardcore videophiles, and with more than 200 million customers coming through their more than 9000 stores weekly as their market focus group. they surely must have the data to back them up.

Walmart will also feature a 99 cent "Movie of the Day" rental, that customers will be able to vote for each Friday on Walmart's FaceBook page.