*By Michael Teich*
Walmart's reported plans to launch a streaming video service may prove futile, said The Information reporter Jessica Toonkel. After all, the retailer, she told Cheddar on Wednesday, is late to the game.
"Netflix and Amazon have been doing this for a while," Toonkel said. "This is a really hard business to get into."
Toonkel broke news this week that Walmart may develop a subscription-based video service to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The retailer is considering a price point below $8 per month and may also include an ad-supported free service.
What's the likelihood that Walmart will actually enter the streaming business? That depends on its willingness to spend billions of dollars, Toonkel explained. But after generating $17 billion in cash last year, the company potentially has enough ammo to match Netflix's aggressive spending budget, pegged at $8 billion for 2018.
But it's not just a matter of cash flow, Toonkel said. "They have a lot of money, clearly, but they also have investors that might not be as patient as investors in Netflix."
Walmart's last attempt to enter video content faltered ー in 2010 the retailer acquired Vudu, a video-on-demand service that currently offers a combined 100,000 movie titles and television series. But analytics firm comScore reported that users spent only 18,000 hours on the platform in May, just 2 percent of the total hours spent on Netflix and 6 percent of hours spent watching Amazon in the same period.
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/walmart-could-launch-video-streaming-platform)
Bill Nye the Science Guy is back but on an even smaller screen. America’s favorite science teacher has racked up more than eight million followers on TikTok, and he joined Cheddar News to talk about his success on the platform, having fun but also being serious about scientific topics like tackling climate change, and his newest hosting project "The End is Nye," a streaming show on Peacock that examines disasters — both natural and manmade. "There are six episodes. We have big disasters. Things go terribly wrong, and then we show you how things could have gone right," he explained.
Bill Bellissimo, CEO of Crunchtime, joins Cheddar to break down how he's guiding the food, service, and hospitality industries through the labor crisis with software and technological solutions.
On this episode of On the Job, Meg Ferrero, VP, Assistant General Counsel, ADP, discusses how to successfully find and cultivate a mentor-mentee relationship; Bill Bellissimo, CEO of Crunchtime, breaks down how he's guiding the food and hospitality industry through the labor crisis with software and technological solutions; Senior Reporter Chloe Aiello gets a first-person look at how Brooklyn Dumpling house is updating an old-school idea to revolutionize how they do business.
Sheryl Sandberg is stepping down as Chief Operating Officer of Facebook's parent company Meta. After 14 years at a company she helped transform from a little-known social media website into one of the most powerful tech giants in the world, Sandberg announced she's leaving to spend more time with her family and focus on her philanthropic work. Evan Nierman, CEO of Red Banyan Crisis PR and author of Crisis Averted, joined Cheddar to discuss Sandberg's legacy at Facebook, her impact on women in the workplace, and what we can expect to see from her in the future.
Scammers are cashing in on the crypto craze. According to a new report from the FTD, fraudsters have stolen more than $1 billion in crypto from 46,000 people since 2021. That's $1 out of every $4 reported lost to scammers paid in cryptocurrency, more than any other payment method. Chris Pierson, the founder and CEO of BlackCloak, gives tips on how to protect yourself from scammers.
