VUDU Lands on LG, Mistubishi HDTVs

Written by Ryan Lawler

Thursday, September 3. 2009 at 10:50 AM EDT Post a comment

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VUDU Inc. is expanding the number of consumer electronics devices that will carry its streaming movie service, announcing immediate availability on HDTVs from LG Electronics Inc. (London: LGLD; Korea: 6657.KS) , and will also be integrated into flat panel TVs from Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America.

Following up on a previous announcement, LG has added a VUDU channel on certain LCD and plasma HDTVs, enabling consumers to instantly purchase or rent from VUDU's library of more than 16,000 video titles.

All new LG broadband-connected HDTVs will have the VUDU service enabled instantly. For customers that had previously purchased the HDTV sets, the service will become available through an automatic software update.

VUDU also announced that its streaming service will also be available on flat-panel LCD screens from Mitsubishi Digital. The service will be added to Mitsubishi's Diamond Unisen line of broadband-connected HDTVs. To get customers using the service, Mitsubishi is offering up to $50 worth of movie purchases or rentals for free for the first two months after a user connects to the service.

In addition to its library of movie titles, the Mitsubishi TVs will also have access to a number of Web services, including YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, and Pandora.

The move comes as VUDUshift strategy from selling its own broadband-connected Internet set-top boxes to embedding its services on third-party CE devices. With its new embedded CE deals, VUDU joins a growing number of content providers that are finding ways to bring their broadband services into the living room through Internet-connected HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and other devices.