Walmart is finally lurching back into the streaming video business, unveiling a new service that makes Vudu streaming video available from its Walmart.com Web site.

Walmart bought Vudu back in early 2010, and an eye towards reaping income from Vudu services integrated with set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and HDTVs sold through the company’s massive retail efforts.
Now, the company is making Vudu’s library of movies and other video content available for online streaming, with rentals starting as low as 99 cents—although that scales up to as much as $5.99. Purchase prices for movies start at $4.99.

Walmart is not offering a subscription service, a la NetFlix, that provides customers with all-they-can-eat streaming for a fixed price. Instead, Walmart’s online video offerings take an approach like Apple’s iTunes store, where customers pay for content on an item-by-item basis.

As part of the launch, customers will be able to vote on Facebook for a new release title that will be available for customers to rent for just 99 cents: folks just need to log into Facebook and “like” the title they want to see get the discount treatment.

Vudu is available in the U.S. only, and users need to be 13 years old or more to set up an account.

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