Late last year, we reported that Amazon and Roku faced a major cheap TV competition in the form of Vizio, whose new 4K Quantum Pro TVs claimed to compete with the top 4K TVs on the market. But it sounds like that was only a warm-up. According to a new story in the Wall Street Journal, retail giant Walmart is in talks to acquire Vizio’s TV business.
According to the WSJ, such a transaction would provide Walmart a significant boost in the inexpensive TV market, where it presently offers its own Onn brand, as well as access to a large amount of user data and ad revenue from Vizio’s smart TV platform.
The cheap TV market is growing very the conflict, and both Amazon and Roku have begun producing their own TVs, streaming devices, and dongles. And they’re very good: for example, we evaluated the Roku Plus series last year and discovered it to be an excellent affordable 4K QLED TV.
This is not Walmart’s first smart television rodeo
Walmart’s smart TV adventures extend beyond its own-brand TVs; it previously collaborated with Roku to produce “shoppable ads,” which allow you to buy real things from your TV, and it has also collaborated with marketing agency Innovid to expand Walmart Connect to new tech platforms.
However, Walmart’s purchase of Vizio would open up a new front in the smart TV conflict, as well as provide a new revenue stream. According to The Verge, Walmart may begin selling ad spots on its in-house TV displays to marketers, as it already does with other TV brands.
For US TV customers, the purchase of Vizio would most certainly result in lower-priced Vizio TV sets, which is obviously enticing – but it would also imply even more of a drive towards data collection and advertising sales, which is where the money is; profit margins at the lower end of the TV market are extremely narrow.
Currently, neither Walmart nor Vizio are ready to comment on the report; if there If there is a sale, it will be several months before we see any changes on the Walmart retail floor. In the meantime, if you want to buy a nice TV without breaking the bank, check out our guide to the top TV bargains, which includes some excellent budget options.
