Vudu, the movie streaming and rental service, announced via its blog Sunday that soon (and that’s all we know — “soon”) you’ll be able to use Chromecast to throw anything Vudu-streamed straight onto your TV.
This is the first of many companies and services that will barrage Chromecast with apps specifically designed or updated to be “casted” by the dongle device, since Google’s release (almost exactly one month ago) of the Google Cast Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers who want to bake Chromecast compatibility directly into their apps and websites.
Vudu, which Walmart acquired in March 2010, offers thousands of movies and TV shows for short-term rentals and streaming, and currently needs some kind of third-party device to get onto TV screens — namely PS3 and PS4, Xbox 360 and One, iPad, Roku devices, and select Android tablets, among others. Once beta-testing is complete and it goes live, the collaboration will be available on updated Android and iOS apps and through the Chrome browser for PC and Macs.
It appears that we’re currently entering the calm before the storm — brace yourselves for a brutal scuffle from which Google, Roku and a handful of others hope to emerge as the sole reigning champion of the living room streaming-media realm: yesterday Roku unveiled what appears to be a nemesis aimed directly at the Chromecast — the HDMI-enabled Roku Streaming Stick.
Vudu has broken the ice and Google now awaits the oncoming onslaught of apps that it hopes will bolster the Chromecast’s versatility — will Roku’s April release of the Streaming Stick be too late to stand in Google’s way?
