Walmart pushes content creation

Signs venture with interactive programming producer Eko for shows

Walmart Inc is going Hollywood. The world’s largest retailer has formed a joint venture with a start-up, Eko, to develop original, interactive programming, including cooking shows and toy catalogues, and will acquire an undisclosed stake in the company. Walmart also will invest more than $200 million (Dh734 million) with Eko, and has agreed to take part in its next funding round.

The retail giant is already one of the world’s largest sellers of movies and TV shows through its retail outlets and online stores. Now, the Arkansas-based company wants to coax more of its customers to watch videos and read books using its array of web properties. Walmart operates the online video service Vudu, as well as an e-book platform.

“Customers are spending a lot of their time in the digital world, and we want to be a player with respect to our customers’ daily digital habits,” Scott McCall, Walmart’s head of entertainment, said.

“Customers drive by Walmart stores several times a day. We want to them drive our digital footprint several times a day.”

Eko and Walmart are still settling on the details of what they will make together, but the output will include short-form and long-form programming, McCall said. Those programmes will be available on Walmart properties, as well as on social media and other services.

Programmes could invite viewers to buy products from Walmart’s stores, and could range from advertisements and web series to TV and movies.

Eko is anything but a traditional studio.

Founded in 2010 as Interlude, the company has spent the last eight years developing interactive forms of storytelling that blend movies and video games. Eko possesses more than 15 patents for its technology.

It created a Coke ad featuring a mom and her daughter, and viewers had the option of watching from the perspective of both characters. Eko also created a six-part adaptation of WarGames, the 1983 film featuring Matthew Broderick as a nerd who accidentally triggers a countdown to nuclear Armageddon. Other companies, including Netflix and HBO, have begun experimenting with interactive shows.

The deal with Walmart “is the largest investment made to date in interactive TV,” said Yoni Bloch, CEO of Eko.

Customers spend a lot of time in the digital world, and we want to be a player with respect to our customers’ daily digital habits. We want them to drive digital footprint...” Scott McCall| Head of Entertainment, Walmart